The prime minister of Mali has resigned following his arrest by soldiers who backed a military coup earlier this year. Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra took over an interim government in April after a military coup the previous month. Diarra has been accused of pursuing a personal agenda while Mali grapples with a crisis in the north where Islamist fighters have claimed vast tracts of territory. He had backed the deployment of a West African intervention force to oust the militants, a plan opposed by former coup leader Amadou Sanogo, who is believed to have given the order for Diarra’s arrest.