Does the return to calm herald a new storm? The imam at the head of the coalition demanding a change of power in Mali called his supporters to calm Sunday after two days of bloody unrest in Bamako.
Return to calm but palpable tension
The tension remained palpable at the end of the afternoon in the Malian capital, with spontaneous regroupings of hundreds of people on the street, major axes cut by dams or burnt tires, or the rampage of 'a court and a district headquarters of the presidential party, found AFP correspondents.
No direct confrontation between Bamakois and security forces firing live ammunition like the previous days, but a volatile situation fraught with threats. In the Badalabougou district, a precarious calm has returned. Hundreds of worshipers gathered in the large hall with green columns of the mosque and outside for the funerals of four deceased.
Clashes around the mosque
It was around the mosque that the bloodiest clashes took place on Saturday evening. The mosque is the one where Imam Mahmoud Dicko and his supporters preach have transformed its surroundings into an entrenched camp, worried that the security forces will come to arrest him like other leaders of the protest since Friday.
Since Friday, at least seven people have been killed according to hospital sources. Imam Dicko's camp reports a much heavier toll. The entourage of the imam broadcast videos similar to war images of the events of Saturday evening.
They show at least two visibly dead men bathed in their blood and others punctured by projectiles, as well as a great confusion of men agitated in the mosque complex according to the entourage of Mahmoud Dicko. Shots are fired from a distance in regular jerks, without the shooters being able to be identified. "You are killing Malians, in the mosque, (with) live bullets. The mosque is on fire, ”exclaims a man in one of these videos which could not be identified independently by AFP.
Call for calm
The imam, a well-listened national personality and the bane of power, called for calm. "I once again ask the Malian youth to show restraint and calm," he said to an AFP correspondent.
"The struggle continues", for the "refoundation" of Mali and against "the endemic corruption which is currently bringing our country to its knees", he added, but it must continue "in patience" and "good manners".
How did this protest movement come about?
The capital, normally preserved by the jihadist and intercommunity violence that mourns the north and the center of the country, has been the victim since Friday of its most serious civil unrest in years.
Tensions have intensified since the legislative elections in March-April. A motley coalition of religious leaders, personalities from the world of politics and civil society has gathered around Imam Dicko to protest. This so-called June 5 movement channels a multitude of dissatisfactions in one of the poorest countries in the world: against the security degradation and the inability to face it, the economic slump, the failure of the State, or the widespread discredit of institutions suspected of corruption.
Friday, the movement entered into his words in "civil disobedience", frustrated by the successive responses of the president to radical demands: dissolution of parliament, resignation of judges of the Constitutional Court, formation of a government which he would appoint the Prime Minister and, ultimately, departure of the president. The movement claims to be peaceful and accuses the power of violence.
Legislative soon?
Leaders who have not been arrested appear to be hiding. The movement's continued control over the challenge is not clear, nor is the longer-term effect of the call for restraint launched by Imam Dicko.
The decision of the Constitutional Court to invalidate around thirty legislative results is seen as a trigger for the challenge.
On Saturday evening, in his fourth speech in a month, the head of state announced the dissolution of the court. It also paved the way for partial legislative elections where the Court invalidated the results, following the recommendations of a mission of good offices from West African states.
The current escalation is indeed alarming 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.
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