Early Thursday morning, March 22, 2012, Malian President Amadou Tomani Toure fled the Presidential Palace when the Malian military took control of the capitol city, Bamako.
The leaders of this renegade military group, who call themselves the National Committee for the Return of Democracy and the Restoration of the State (CNRDR), went on state television at around 4:30 a.m., saying, "My dear compatriots; consider the notorious incapacity of the regime to manage the crisis that rages in the north of the country, consider the inaction of the government to supply adequate means to the armed forces...consider the climate of uncertainty created by the authorities for the general elections of 2012...the CNRDR reclaims the armed forces in defense of the security of Mali...and to take responsibility for ending the regime of the incompetent and disavowed Mister Amadou Toumani Toure."
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