After the "coup d'état" in Mali, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced that Paris had requested an emergency meeting of the Security Council.

Jean-Yves Laudrian said before the National Assembly: "We will call for a meeting of the Security Council to consider the grave situation in Mali.

He stressed that "the civilian character of the transition is an indispensable condition for its credibility," calling for the release of the President and the Prime Minister.

For his part, French President Emmanuel Macron said that the European Union was ready to impose sanctions on those responsible for the arrest of Mali's leaders, in what he said was a "coup d'état from within a coup."

Macron told journalists at the conclusion of the European Union summit: "We are ready in the coming hours to impose targeted sanctions on those involved."

Several diplomatic and government sources said that Mali's military officers had arrested the President, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence of the Interim Government, as amended.

The sources added that President Ba Ndau, Prime Minister Mokhtar Awan and Defence Minister Suleiman Ducouré were taken to a military base in Kati outside the capital, Bamako.

The interim Government of the West African country has appointed a number of new ministers, while critics have said that prominent military figures have taken on important portfolios.