Bamako – A special forces commander in Mali was freed on Friday after angry police officers marched to the prison where he was detained for allegedly using brute force to quash deadly protests last year.
The head of the police counter-terrorism unit Oumar Samake had been held in the Sahel state over lethal skirmishes between security forces and opponents of ex-president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
Anti-Keita protests rocked Mali last year and eventually culminated in the president’s ouster in a military coup.
One such protest on July 10, 2020 sparked several days of deadly clashes with security forces.
Mali’s political opposition said at the time that 23 were killed during the unrest; the UN reported 14 protesters killed, including two children.
An investigation was opened into the killings in December 2020.
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Police special-forces commander Samake was then detained for his alleged role in the violence on Friday, a senior legal official said.
But the move infuriated police officers – some of whom marched on the prison in the capital Bamako where he was held.
There are conflicting accounts about what happened next.
Prison guard Yacouba Toure said that large numbers of well-armed policemen turned up at the jail. “We did not resist,” he said. “They left with Ousmane Samake without incident”.
However, a justice ministry official, who requested anonymity, said that the government decided to free Samake “for the sake of peace”.
“This is not a court decision,” the official said, adding that the investigation into Samake will continue.
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The dramatic events underscore the sensitivity of such investigations in chronically unstable Mali.
The country’s military deposed Keita in August 2020 after weeks of protests fuelled by grievances over perceived corruption and the president’s inability to stop the long-running jihadist conflict.
Army officers then installed a civilian-led interim government to steer Mali back towards democratic rule. But military strongman Colonel Assimi Goita deposed these civilian leaders in May — in a second coup.
Goita has pledged to restore civilian rule and stage elections in February next year.
However there are doubts about whether the government will be able to hold elections within such a short time frame.
Mali has been struggling to quell a brutal jihadist insurgency which emerged in 2012 and left swathes of the vast nation outside of government control.
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Picture: Getty Images
Source: AFP
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