President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta has offered concessions in a move to unblock a stalemate with opposition leaders that has mired Mali in turmoil since a disputed legislative election in March.
The impasse is a growing concern for Mali’s neighbours and outside powers which have sent in thousands of troops to help it fight militants linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
Keïta said late on Wednesday he was open to the dissolution of the National Assembly, one of the opposition’s key demands. He suggested fresh elections could follow if planned new appointees to the Constitutional Court cleared it.
“If peace in Mali depends on it, and that I have the constitutional means to do it without the risk of creating a constitutional vacuum damaging for the whole country, I will do it without hesitation,” Keïta said in a midnight speech.
He reiterated that he was open to forming a government of national unity, and appointing new judges to Mali’s highest court, another central opposition demand.
Keïta said mediators from the regional West African body ECOWAS were expected to return to Mali in the coming days to help find a solution to the crisis.
Struggle for stability
There was no immediate response from the opposition, which earlier called for another protest in the capital, Bamako, on Friday, saying proposals put forward so far by the government were insufficient.
Thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets twice in June demanding that Keïta, who was re-elected in 2018 for a second five-year term, resign for failing to offer solutions to Mali’s security and economic crisis.
Mali has struggled to find stability since a 2012 military coup that was followed by an uprising by Tuaregs in the north, later hijacked by Islamist militants.
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