Mali’s leaders annul police promotions

[iolsa]

Bamako -  

Mali's leaders have nullified the promotions of some police officers which led last month to violent clashes with other police units, official sources said on Friday.

The promotions of officers close to the military junta that overthrew president Amadou Toumani Toure on March 22, plunging the west African country into crisis, were annulled by interim President Dioncounda Traore and the internal security minister, General Tiefing Konate.

Clashes broke out on September 26 in Bamako between the promoted  police and other officers who had not been affected, leaving two people injured, one of them with a bullet wound.

Ousmane Diallo, the secretary general of the National Union of Police Superintendents in Mali, called for the annulment of the promotions, describing them as "unjust".

The coup in Bamako led to the fall of north Mali into the hands of armed Islamic groups linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which apply strict Islamic sharia law including summary executions, stonings, amputations and beatings as punishments.

The coup perpetrators led by Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo have handed over power to civilians, but remain influential in the Malian capital, where tensions remain high between their supporters  and opponents. - Sapa-AFP



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