[Updated May 13, 2020]: Protesters torched an administrative building in the central Malian city of Kayes on Wednesday, following a day of unrest after police killed a youngster. The latest violence in Kayes follows a string of anti-government protests in the city concerning both Mali’s legislative election and its coronavirus restrictions. An off-duty police officer shot 18-year-old Seyba Tamboura dead on Monday evening after attempting to disperse a group of young men on motorbikes in the city.
The killing sparked protests on Monday evening and which continued over the following two days. Two other people have been killed in the unrest, in circumstances which remain unclear. Kayes Mayor Adama Guindo told AFP that “angry youths” set fire to an administrative building on Wednesday and “burned all the documents and the archives”.
The violence follows the sacking of a police station and police outposts in the city on Tuesday, according to a government statement from that day. Siradjou Tamboura, the uncle of the shooting victim, said that young people “want justice because there are too many injustices in this city, too many police abuses”.
The West African state held a long-delayed parliamentary election in March in which the results for dozens of seats were disputed. Protesters took to the streets in several cities, including Kayes, when the Supreme Court ruled that ten ruling-party candidates had won their seats, despite initial results appearing to show they lost. Kayes residents had also demonstrated against a night-time curfew meant to stem the spread of coronavirus, which the government lifted on Saturday. A delegation of Malian ministers arrived in Kayes on Wednesday morning to handle the crisis. In a televised address on Tuesday, Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said the government had “compassion” for the three people who were killed, and promised the police officer who shot Tamboura would be held to account.
Previous Day Report
Bamako, May 12, 2020 – Bamako, May 12, 2020 – Three people have been killed in the western Malian city of Kayes, a police official said Tuesday, in unrest that began after an off-duty officer shot a youngster dead. Protests have been ongoing since late Monday, when a police officer attempted to stop a group of youngsters from riding their motorbikes, and subsequently shot and killed an 18-year-old named Seyba Tamboura.
Mamadou Zoumana Sidibe, the governor of the Kayes region, said Tamboura’s friends torched a police station during the night in response. They then barricaded themselves on a bridge in the city, where they remained on Tuesday. An official in Kayes police force, who declined to be named, said three people had been killed in total — including Tamboura — in circumstances that remain unclear. Earlier in the day, Security Minister Salif Traore said he had asked police “not to use force” in resolving the situation, as he travelled to city to oversee the operation.
The unrest in Kayes follows a string of anti-government protests in the city concerning both Mali’s legislative election and its coronavirus restrictions. The West African state held a long-delayed parliamentary election in March in which the results for dozens of seats were disputed. Protesters took to the streets in several cities, including Kayes, when the Supreme Court declared the winners of the contested seats in late April. City residents had also demonstrated against a night-time curfew meant to stem the spread of coronavirus, which the government lifted on Saturday.
Seydou Diallo, the regional director of Kayes police force, apologised for the killing of Tamboura and said the offending officer had not been on patrol during the incident and was now in custody. “We cannot tolerate such indiscipline,” he said. “This is an unfortunate incident for the police”.
