Mali President Keita Meets Protest Leader Mahmoud Dicko
Mali’s president has met the leader of a protest movement that has brought many thousands people on to the streets.
A video posted by the country showed the meeting between president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Mahmoud Dicko, an imam and leading figure of the so-called June 5 movement, in the capital, Bamako.
It was the first official meeting between the two men since demonstrations began last month.
The protests have channelled deep-seated frustration over attacks by armed groups and interethnic violence that have claimed thousands of lives and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes since 2012.
A statement by the opposition coalition of religious leaders, politicians and civil society figures accused the president Keita of ignoring the demands of the movement.