Panafrican News Agency

Thousands demonstrate in Bamako to demand resignation of President Keita

Bamako, Mali (PANA) - Thousands of Malians again took to the streets of Bamako to demand the resignation of Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Kéita, accusing him and his administration of mismanagement and bad handling of the crises shaking the country, PANA reported.

This followed a call from opposition political parties and some civil society organisations after similar demonstrations on 5 and 19 June, this year.

In a speech, the chairman of the coordination of movements and support associations (CMAS), Imam  Mahmoud Dicko, asked the demonstrators to invest the prime minister’s house, the national television, ORTM, and parliament.

The representative of the association "Anko Mali Dron" (Mali only), Mrs Sy Kadiatou Sow, former governor of Mali, listed the “10 commandments of civil disobedience”, that is actions to be taken by the people until the end of the IBK regime.

These were the blockade of entries to all public services except those of health, without entering offices, the blockade of entries and outing of the country’s main cities, and the action to create traffic on the three bridges of Bamako, and the refusal to pay fines and penalties.

She also called for the formation of mobile groups of communication to inform the people in case the internet was cut.

She also appealed to the demonstrators to support the security forces and not to block the private residence and services, to protect embassies, diplomatic representations, foreigners and their properties.

"We are pacifists who don’t want to burn the country. We ask them (the government) to leave without clashes, they did not want it. It will be what must be," he explained.

From the Independence Square, the excited demonstrators took to the different parts of the city to occupy the front side of the prime minister’s residence’, offices of Mali’s national television (ORTM) and parliament.

They also occupied the three bridges that link the two sides of the River Niger that crosses the city of Bamako, halting all movement there.

According to reliable sources, several people were wounded, four of them slightly, in clashes in front of parliament and the ORTM.

According to the same sources, a demonstrator died of his injuries.

 

-0-    PANA    GT/BEH/MSA/RA    10Jul2020