Mali’s president has today announced his resignation in an attempt to avoid “bloodshed” following his detention in a military coup, whose leaders pledged new elections to resolve an increasing political crisis in the fragile West African nation.

Note that Ibrahim Boubacar Keita’s government had been overwhelmed by a series of protests over economic stagnation, corruption, and a brutal Islamist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives.

Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse were into custody yesterday afternoon by rebel soldiers who drove him to a military base on the outskirts of Bamako, which they had seized that morning.

The excited crowd which had already gathered in the capital demanded Keita’s resignation and cheered the rebels as they made their way to Keita’s official residence.

Though it was yet to be disclosed if Keita was still in custody at the Kati base, Keita did later appear in a state television broadcast where he declared the dissolution of the government and national assembly, saying he had no choice but to resign with immediate effect. In his words:

“If it pleased certain elements of our military to decide this should end with their intervention, do I really have a choice?” he said of the day’s events.

“(I must) submit to it, because I don’t want any bloodshed.”

The coup’s leaders however later appeared also on television to pledge a political transition and new elections within a “reasonable time” and Malian Air Force deputy chief of staff, Ismael Wague said he and his fellow officers had “decided to take responsibility in front of the people and of history”.

However, Mali’s neighbours have warned against any unconstitutional transfer of power as the coup unfolded yesterday.