Mali

Thousands of people took to the streets of Mali’s capital Bamako on Tuesday renewing calls for President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita to step down despite international mediation efforts to resolve a political crisis. Protests led by an opposition coalition called M5-RFP have raged since June, caused by contested local elections and perceived government corruption and incompetence.

Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita appointed nine judges to the Constitutional Court by decree as part of a compromise intended to ease the country's months-long political crisis.

Almost 150 people were extrajudicially killed by Malian and Burkinabe security forces in Mali between April and June, the UN said Thursday. 

Protesters in Mali are planning to go to the streets again this week as opponents continue to demand the resignation of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. Tensions are growing after the opposition in Mali rejected a plan by West African leaders to end the country’s political crisis.

Five soldiers were killed and five were wounded in an ambush on a military convoy and an artillery attack on a camp, with both attacks blamed on jihadists, in central Mali, army and local sources said.

The Muslim cleric seen as the driving force behind Mali’s protest movement said the country’s political crisis could be resolved without President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita resigning, offering a more moderate solution than other opposition leaders.

Opposition leaders in Mali are rejecting a plan by ECOWAS, a grouping of West African governments,  to end the country’s spiraling crisis, and are insisting that Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita resign. This announcement came as West African leaders on Monday called for the creation of a unity government in Mali and a fresh vote after disputed elections, but warned of sanctions against those opposing efforts to end the crisis.