CNN, Reuters, and the BBC have all reported on an event that happened in the country of Mali on Tuesday, August 18th. In what is a suspected coup, troops have detained the President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and the Prime Minister Boubou Cisse. Crowds took to the streets in the city of Bamako, and a government-owned building was set on fire and looted.
Reports have surfaced of an attempted mutiny that happened earlier the same morning at a military camp just outside the city and some have pointed to this as the reason for the President and Prime Minister's detainment. But political discontent had been growing in the city since May, when "the country's top constitutional court overturned results from disputed parliamentary elections." Some saw this as corruption, as the ruling allowed the President's party to obtain majority seats in Mali's parliament.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres promptly called for the immediate release of the President and Prime Minister, Reuters reported.
The protests that occurred in the city could perhaps be compared to the recent Black Lives Matter protests that have occurred in recent months in the United States. I think an interesting question to be raised is whether or not protests actually work. Do they actually incite change? Or is their only use a release of tension for the angry? Historically, how have protests changed laws? One can look to the arrest of the killers of George Floyd as a possible answer.
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