Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta announced on Saturday evening the "de facto dissolution" of the Constitutional Court in an attempt to dissipate the almost insurgent tensions that raged through Bamako for the second day in a row. 

The capital was again the victim of clashes which went on intensifying in the evening, in the aftermath of the worst day of civil unrest that Bamako had known in years. 

The arrest since Friday evening of several of the main leaders of a dispute which directly targets the Head of State has not brought down the fever in a city normally preserved by the jihadist and inter-community violence which mourns the north and the center of the country. 

Bamako under high voltage 

Several neighborhoods have seen men erecting roadblocks, setting tires on fire and ransacking them, such as that of the premises of the High Council of Communities. 

The atmosphere was electric around the mosque where Imam Mahmoud Dicko preaches, a religious figure much listened to, considered as the inspirer of the protest. In an atmosphere conducive to all rumors, his supporters apparently feared that the imam would also be arrested and clashed with the security forces. 

They responded to live ammunition, seriously injuring several men, according to the entourage of the imam who published photos of the injured. 

No human toll of the day on Saturday was released while that of Friday left at least three dead and dozens injured. 

Apart from President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, whose challenge calls for resignation, the Constitutional Court has focused anger since it invalidated around thirty results of the legislative elections in March-April. 

The dismissal of its nine judges was among the demands of the heterogeneous coalition, made up of religious leaders and personalities from the political world and civil society, which orchestrated the mobilization. 

In a brief, serious tone, the fourth in just a month, the head of state said he would revoke the decrees appointing the remaining judges, which in his words amounts to a "de facto dissolution". 

The new judges should be appointed quickly, which should pave the way for partial legislative elections in the districts whose results the Constitutional Court has invalidated. 

Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, 75, president since 2013 and re-elected in 2018, promised that those responsible for the violence would be punished. But he also reiterated his offer of dialogue and assured that the next government, being formed, would be "consensual, made up of republican and patriotic executives and not thugs and demolishers of the country". 

"Civil disobedience" 

However, since the start of the crisis, none of the president's overtures, including the offer of a government of national unity, have appeased the protest which, on the contrary, took its most violent turn on Friday, with attacks on such eminent symbols of power as parliament and national television; and the live fire response by the security forces. 

For the third time in just over a month, the so-called June 5 movement had sent thousands of Malians out into the street to demand the resignation of the president. 

But this time, the movement, frustrated by the successive responses made by the president, had decided to enter into "civil disobedience", but peaceful according to him. 

Dreaded for several weeks, this escalation with an unpredictable outcome alarmed Mali's allies, worried about one more destabilizing element in a country facing jihadism and a series of major challenges, in a region itself tormented. 

"We remain mobilized because the repression strengthens our determination and we will continue with our watchword until the end of the IBK regime which is a cancer for all of Mali," said Kaou Abdramane Diallo, a spokesperson for the coalition, before the intervention of the head of state in the evening. 

The movement channels a multitude of dissatisfactions in one of the poorest countries in the world: dissatisfaction with the security degradation and the incapacity to face it after years of violence, the economic slump, the failure of the state services , or the widespread discredit of institutions suspected of corruption.

With AFP

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