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Moscow condemns Mali coup – Foreign Ministry

Moscow shares the position of the United Nations Security Council and the African Union
Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS
Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, March 28 (Itar-Tass) —— Moscow shares the position of the United Nations Security Council and the African Union, which have denounced the seizure of power by a military junta in Mali, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

“We are concerned over tensions in Mali after a military coup of March 22,” the ministry said. “We are concerned with the fate of the toppled President Amadou Toumani Toure and arrested leaders of the country.”

Moscow calls on all parties to the conflict to take urgent steps “to settle the situation in Mali on the basis of constitutional principles, to put an end to violence and refrain from force scenarios, and to preserve territorial integrity of this friendly African state.”

Overnight to March 22, Mali servicemen ran out of control and seized the presidential palace in Bamako. Several ministers were arrested. The insurgents said they seized power because of the inability of the Amadou Toumani Toure regime to handle the crisis in the country’s north created by the Tuareg separatists.