“I am doing this without any pressure, and I am doing this in good faith, and I am doing it especially out of love for my country. I have decided to hand in my resignation letter,’’ Toure said.

His resignation will allow the court to declare the vacancy of power, paving the way for the head of the national assembly, Dioncounda Traore, to become interim president, as called for in the constitution.

The soldiers who grabbed power 17 days ago claimed they did so because of President Toure’s mishandling of a rebellion in the north, which began in January. Toure’s popularity took a nosedive because of his lack of assertiveness in the face of the mounting attacks, which inflicted large casualties on Mali’s ill-equipped army.

The ethnic Tuareg rebels had succeeded in taking a dozen small towns, but it was only after Toure was forced from power that the insurgents succeeded in taking the three largest towns in the north. Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu all fell last weekend, and on Friday, the same day that the junta declared they were stepping down, the rebels declared their independence.

The loss of the northern half of the country, an area larger than France, has plunged Mali into crisis. The fighters are divided between a secular group and an Islamist faction that wants to impose Shariah law in Mali’s moderate north. Already, women in the three cities have been forbidden to go out without veils.

It’s unclear which of the factions has the upper hand, though increasingly it appears that Ansar Dine, the Islamist group, has greater sway. On Sunday, residents attempting to flee Gao said they saw Islamist fighters cut the throat of a gunman, who is assumed to belong to the secular rebel group.