A coup d’Etat occurred yesterday in Mali. Several members of the army claiming to belong to the National Committee for the Redress of Democracyand Restoration of the State (CNRDRE) have attacked and then announced to be in control of the presidential palace in Bamako.

According to several news agencies, the “rebels” were able to get into the Palace without having engaged the presidential guards. Some ministers have been arrested.

Demba Traoré, secretary of the Nonviolent Radical Party Transnational and Transparty, lives and works in Mali. Traoré was elected at the last Congress in Rome.

This morning (March 22nd), speaking at Radio Radicale, Marco Pannella said: “At two o’clock this night, through the switchboard of Palazzo Chigi, I could talk to the officer on duty of the Foreign Ministry. I asked to inform the Crisis Unit that – as we talked – a coup was taking place in Bamako, Mali. Indeed, I think I said that a coup was already done”.

“According to the news that we received, the initiative was taken by “mutineers”, but it was clear that these mutineers were part of a project in which they served to give time to the army to get to the Presidential Palace, seize it and then replace the “mutineers” which in fact were always under the command of the army”, Pannella said.

"Basically, while I was speaking over the phone with the Foreign ministry, the Malian state TV was broadcasting the technical pre-transmission checks in the presence of Lieutenant Konaré who was in the process of his statement regarding the announcement of the coup, the curfew and everything we now know. I asked the officer to contact the small office within the Foreign Ministry charged with the relations with NATO. I gave my availability to help out. I had no contact whatsoever ever since. I announced officially what was happening, I requested that the Foreign Minister be informed about the coup.”

“This is just to remind people of the efficiency of the Nonviolent Radical Party, which in fact is sometimes referred to as the “Farnesina (the Foreign Ministry building, ndr) of Torre Argentina”, and that of the official Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Italian Republic”, Pannella concluded. The Secretary of the Radical Party Nonviolent, Demba Traoré is in Bamako right now.