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President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita |
The United Nations’ Secretary General has called for calm
and dialogue in Mali after tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets
in the capital Bamako on Friday demanding President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita step
down.
Keita was re-elected in 2018 for a second five-year term,
but has struggled with a years-long security crisis, an outbreak of the new
coronavirus, a strike by teachers, and political tensions arising from disputed
local elections in March.
Friday’s angry protests were the second this month, and
opposition leaders called for civil disobedience if certain demands were not
met.
“The Secretary-General calls on all political leaders to
send clear messages to their supporters to exercise utmost restraint and to
refrain from any action likely to fuel tensions,” said Farhan Haq, Deputy
Spokesman for Secretary-General António Guterres.
Mali, which produces gold and cotton, has struggled to find
stability since 2012 when jihadist fighters hijacked an insurrection by Tuareg
separatists, seizing the entire desert north of the country.
French troops helped to recapture the north but violence
persists, despite the presence of thousands of United Nations troops, with
groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State stoking intercommunal tensions.
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