Twenty wounded in rally

Twenty people were injured on Saturday in Bamako, the Malian capital, as police moved in to break up a rally by the Mouvement patriotique pour le renouveau (MPR), the main opposition party, AFP reported.

Party officials said at the weekend that the incident occurred when party leaders arrived at the national theatre to tell supporters that a planned rally had been cancelled because of refurbishment work, AFP reported. The agency did not say how the party members received their injuries nor how serious these were.
Witnesses were quoted as saying the building was jammed with security personnel for several hours after the incident. Five hundred party militants, who regrouped at the party headquarters, were told “not to respond to provocation” as they were about to march in protect to a political forum held by President Alpha Omar Konare, AFP said. The week-long forum to discuss Mali’s political and institutional problems opened last Thursday but only four of Mali’s 19 opposition parties are attending, the agency reported.