President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita

Mali Junta Says It Has Released Ousted President

August 28, 2020 12:43 pm

Mali’s new military rulers said Thursday that former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who was detained during the country’s coup on August 18, had been freed.

The announcement came on the eve of a summit by Mali’s neighbours, who are to decide whether to ratchet up pressure on the fledgeling junta.

Keita’s ouster by rebel troops sent shockwaves through the region and in France, which sees Mali as a linchpin in its campaign against jihadism in the Sahel, where more than 5,000 French troops are based.

“President IBK is free in his movements, he’s at home,” a spokesman for the …

UN Peacekeepers Visit Mali’s President Keita In Detention

Protesters Demand Resignation Of President Keita In Mali

August 16, 2020 3:19 pm

Malians took to the streets in the capital Bamako on Tuesday, despite rainfall and pleas from mediators to stay home, to demand the resignation of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

Protesters numbering in the low thousands assembled in a central square, an AFP journalist saw, blowing plastic vuvuzela horns and brandishing anti-government banners.

“We want real change in Mali, IBK get out,” read one banner, using the acronym by which Keita is known.

Other people carried umbrellas against the rain and toted signs, also calling for the prime minister’s resignation.

After the crowd sang the national anthem, prominent opposition leader Choguel …

Mali Opposition Insists President Keita Must Go

July 13, 2020 4:27 am

Mali’s opposition on Sunday rejected concessions by President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita aimed at resolving an escalating political crisis that has sparked deadly protests, saying it would be satisfied only if he resigns.

Keita announced in a speech late on Saturday he was dissolving the Constitutional Court and would move to implement recommendations made last month by regional bloc ECOWAS, which included re-running some of March’s contested legislative elections.

A spokesman for M5-RFP, a coalition of political, religious and civil society leaders that launched protests over a month ago calling for Keita to resign, rejected his proposal.