20120323
Press TV
The United Nations Security Council has condemned the coup in Mali, demanding that coup leaders return their forces to the barracks and immediately restore constitutional rule.
Following a meeting on the latest crisis in West Africa, Security Council members announced in a statement issued on Thursday that they "strongly condemn the forcible seizure of power from the democratically-elected government of Mali by some elements of the Malian armed forces."
The council also called on the mutineers "to ensure the safety and security of President Amadou Toumani Toure and to return to their barracks" and demanded "the release of all detained Malian officials" and the "immediate restoration of constitutional rule and the democratically elected government."
The Security Council statement came after renegade Malian soldiers stormed the presidential palace in the capital Bamako and deposed the president on Thursday, ending his decade-long rule.
On Thursday, the African Union, the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS), the European Union, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the United Nations and the United States condemned the ouster of the president despite Toure’s word that he would step down after the upcoming elections in April.
Captain Amadou Sanogo, the coup leader, said that their move was prompted by government’s “inability” to put down a Tuareg-led insurgency in the north of the country.
The renegade soldiers’ spokesperson, Lieutenant Amadou Konare, said that the takeover was a result of a “lack of adequate material to defend the nation.” He said the junta “solemnly commits to restore power to a democratically-elected president as soon as national unity and territorial integrity are re-established.”
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