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.