In Mali, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta announced on Friday August 18, that he would “suspends” the constitutional review after strong protests in the country for more than a month.
“In the current climate, the explanations (on the constitutional review) are struggling to be heard and accepted. So I decided in all responsibility to suspend the constitutional review”, declared the President of the Republic in an address on national television.
In the afternoon, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta received a delegation from the “An te A Bana” platform after mediation of religious leaders and traditional authorities.
“I regret the excesses of language and behavior” which threatened “to shake the national cohesion”, said the president. The review project had been the subject of intense protests, mainly in Bamako, where thousands of people had demonstrated on numerous occasions.
“It is up to me to take steps to engage in an inclusive and dispassionate dialogue”, the president concluded in a speech calling on the Nation to work for the maintenance of social cohesion.
Aboubacar Dicko