Malian soldiers gather on a street of Bamako on March 21, 2012. Malian soldiers fired shots in the air in the capital before storming the state broadcaster to demand better equipment with which to battle an insurgency in the north. Photo/AFP
By PATRICK MAYOYO pmayoyo@ke.nationmedia.com and AFP
Posted Wednesday, March 21 2012 at 22:30
Posted Wednesday, March 21 2012 at 22:30
Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetang’ula was among dignitaries from different parts of the world who are stranded in the west African country of Mali following what appeared to be a mutiny on Wednesday.
Mr Wetang’ula posted a message on his Facebook account late Wednesday saying fighting broke out in Mali’s capital city, Bamako, just as he was about to leave his hotel for the airport.
The message said in part : “A coup d’état has taken place in Mali as I was about to leave for the airport. May not be able to leave. Airspace closed. Pray for me.”
Speaking to the Nation in a telephone interview at 9 pm last night, Mr Wetang’ula said he had been attending an African Union peace and security meeting and was waiting for a Kenya Airways flight to bring him back home in an hour’s time when chaos erupted.
“We are just marooned in our hotel rooms as even the lifts have been demobilised and I can hear sporadic gun shots,” he said.
Mr Wetang’ula said the hotel he was staying in was close to a radio and TV station which had been taken over by rebel soldiers. “It is really worrying here especially when you see men in uniform patrolling outside your hotel,” he said.
The minister said he was with his colleagues from Niger and Zimbabwe. Other ministers had left the previous day.
Mr Wetang’ula said he been in contact with his colleagues at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and State House. Although the soldiers were outside their hotel, he said, they had not tried to force their way in but they had asked staff and guests to remain inside.
The minister said the African Peace and Security Council meeting had been called to discuss the insecurity in Mali that had been compounded by an influx of arms from neighbouring countries.
Malian soldiers fired shots into the air before storming the offices of the state broadcaster, an AFP journalist said.
“We are tired of the situation in the north”, a soldier told AFP as dozens fired their guns, sending panic through the streets. The country’s north has been gripped by a Tuareg rebellion.
Several hours earlier, soldiers at a military camp some 15 kilometres from the capital fired into the air as they demanded proper weapons with which to face the rebels, who have seized several northern towns.
While no official death toll is available, many soldiers are believed to have died in the fighting, which has led to violent riots by their families.
“We want ammunition to go and fight the Tuareg rebels. Enough is enough,” a corporal at the Kati camp told AFP.
He said the soldiers were not seeking the departure of President Amadou Toumani Toure.
“He is our president, but he needs to fix things,” the soldier added.
Since mid-January northern Mali has been rocked by a rebellion fought by the nomadic Tuareg desert tribe who have taken up a decades-old struggle for independence for their region.
But the conflict intensified in recent months when thousands of Tuareg fighters who had been in deposed Libyan dictator Muammar Gadaffi’s army returned to Mali. They have since taken a string of towns in the north and laid siege to others.
In one of the towns, the rebels have surrounded hundreds of government soldiers in a camp which cannot be resupplied with water, food and ammunitions.
An attempt by government forces to break the siege last month was beaten back.
The fighting has displaced nearly 200,000 people and killed scores of others.
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