Mali’s caretaker president Dioncounda Traore was beaten up and hospitalised after hundreds of protesters stormed his palace yesterday to demand his resignation, officials and protesters said.
A spokesman for the soldiers behind a March 22nd coup said Mr Traore’s close-protection officers had killed three people in the attack, in which protesters entered parts of the palace compound unopposed and tore up pictures of Traore.
Mali is struggling to cope with the aftermath of the coup and a subsequent rebellion in its desert north.
Resolving the political crisis in the capital Bamako is a pre-requisite for foreign help in efforts to retake control of the north, now in the hands of separatist and Islamist rebels, including some al-Qaeda fighters. – (Reuters)