Soldiers on pick-up trucks stormed the Soundiata military base in the town of Kati, where gunfire was exchanged before weapons were distributed from the armory and senior officers arrested.

For this subregion, where many countries have a history of civil war and violent conflict, this was a period of remarkable stability, during which ECOWAS even managed to find a peaceful resolution to the 2016–2017 Gambian constitutional crisis.

[17] On the morning of 18 August 2020, soldiers began firing bullets into the air at a military base in Kati, a town 15 kilometres (9 miles) from Bamako, the capital of Mali.

[21] As news of the mutiny spread, hundreds of protesters gathered at Bamako's Independence Monument to demand Keïta's resignation.

The coup leaders denied that anyone had been killed, but soldiers were constantly firing in the air, cheered on by crowds of young people.

A curfew is in place from 21:00 to 05:00 until further notice," Col-Major Ismaël Wagué, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Malian Air Force, said in a televised address.

[23] Opposition member Mahmoud Dicko announced that he is leaving politics as a result of a meeting between him and some of the soldiers that took part in the mutiny.

[30] On 12 September 2020, the National Committee for the Salvation of the People (CNSP) agreed to an 18-month political transition to civilian rule.

[53] Emmanuel Macron, the President of France, a country which has been involved in fighting an Islamist insurgency in its former colony since 2013, called for power to be returned to civilians and for arrested leaders to be freed.

[55] The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution condemning the coup and calling on the soldiers to return to their barracks and release all detainees without delay.

[58] On 25 August 2020, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie suspended Mali from membership and called for the immediate release of Keïta.