Firmness and dialogue on the side of the Malian president, call to continue the mobilization among those who demand his resignation. The positions are frozen, Saturday, July 11, in the aftermath of the almost insurrectionary unrest of which Bamako bore the stigma when he woke up.

At least two people were killed and dozens injured in clashes, while several public buildings, as symbolic as the Parliament or the seat of the national television, were damaged

These events with unpredictable tomorrows add to the volatility of a situation that alarms the allies of Mali, worried about one more destabilizing element in a country facing jihadism and a series of major challenges, in a region itself tormented.

Security maintained "without weakness"

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta said on the night of Friday to Saturday that he would maintain security "without any weakness", but he was also ready to do everything "in (his) power to appease the situation ".

Since the start of the crisis a few weeks ago, none of its overtures have calmed the dispute which, on the contrary, took its most violent turn on Friday.

The motley coalition of religious leaders and personalities from the political world and civil society, which leads the movement, urged the Malians, in a statement, "to maintain and strengthen this mobilization until the goal is reached which is and remains the resignation "of the president.

This so-called June 5 movement should clarify its intentions at a press conference scheduled for Saturday afternoon. It is likely to take place without two of its main leaders, Issa Kaou Djim and Clément Dembélé, arrested on Friday evening, according to the coalition.

The siege of the national television sacked

As announced in advance, some leaders explicitly gave the signal for "civil disobedience" Friday, after the gathering of thousands of people demanding the resignation of the head of state.

Crowds of men then attacked the National Assembly, ransacking and looting offices. They also attacked the headquarters of the national television station, which interrupted its programs.

"The material damage is considerable here: six burnt-out vehicles, seven vehicles with broken windows. The stolen archive scanning device (when it was) a new device, the news server and other devices damaged, "radio and television director general Salif Sanogo told AFP on Saturday.

Symbols of power targeted by the opposition

Members of the security forces opened fire to clear the assembly and the radio and television.

The clashes left two dead and more than 70 injured, including several serious, according to a new official hospital report.

Television has since resumed broadcasting. Dozens of security forces were in his yard on Saturday.

The assembly had also been evacuated from any demonstrator, Saturday morning. But the capital, relatively unspoiled by violence of another nature which besides mourn the north or the center of Mali, displayed, Saturday morning, the stigmata of this almost insurgent surge.

The roads were covered with pebbles and strewn with the remains of roadblocks erected the day before by the demonstrators, as well as the charred carcasses of the shelters of the traffic police.

Third event since June

Occupied late at night, two of the three bridges connecting the two parts of the capital over the Niger River, crucial traffic axes, were freed. But the debris of the demonstration caused the engulfment of the Martyrs' bridge.

Demonstrations have been reported in other cities across the country.

It was the third demonstration since June at the call of this coalition which channels a multitude of discontent in one of the poorest countries in the world: against security degradation and the inability to deal with it after years violence, the economic slump, the failure of state services, or the widespread discredit of institutions suspected of corruption.

The parliamentary elections of March-April and the invalidation of around thirty results by the Constitutional Court, accused of collusion with the authorities, are said to have crystallized anger.

"The events in Bamako are worrying," tweeted the US special envoy for the Sahel, Peter Pham, "any extra-constitutional change of government is out of the question."

With AFP

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