Bamako, Aug 18, 2020 – Gunfire broke out at a key army base near Mali’s capital Bamako on Tuesday, officials and witnesses said, triggering fears of a mutiny in the crisis-stricken Sahel state. Details of the events were sketchy, but the sources said the soldiers fired their guns into the air at a base in Kati, a town some 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Bamako. An officer at the camp told AFP that the gunfire was an act of “rebellion” and many soldiers were unhappy with Mali’s political situation. “We want change,” the officer said. The incident coincided with opposition plans to resume protests against the impoverished country’s embattled president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. “There were lots of them and they were very nervous,” a doctor in Kati told AFP, referring to the soldiers.
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