The head of Mali’s most influential religious organization, the Islamic High Council, criticized the government for showing poor leadership and attacked former colonial ruler France for “dictating everything we’re supposed to do.”
Mahmoud Dicko’s unusually strong criticism of the government of the predominantly Muslim nation came during what began as a prayer meeting of about 60,000 people in a stadium in the capital, Bamako. While almost 19,000 United Nations peacekeepers and French troops have been deployed since a 2012 Islamist insurgency, Mali has been struggling to prevent near-daily attacks by militants linked to al-Qaeda-linked militants that have spilled over to neighboring Burkina Faso.
