BAMAKO (AFP).- Thousands took to the streets of the Malian capital Banako on Friday to protest the publication of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed in the latest edition of the French satirical weekly, Charlie Hebdo.

After Friday prayer's, protesters left mosques and converged on a main road in the centre of the capital of the country where 90 percent of the population is Muslim.

Police and reporters estimated that many thousand of demonstrators heeded Muslim leaders' protest calls.

Speaking of an "affront to Islam," the protest leaders criticised Charlie Hebdo, which published its latest issue on Wednesday a week after Islamist gunmen killed 12 people in an attack on its Paris headquarters.

The front page of the new edition shows a cartoon of a weeping Mohammed carrying a "Je Suis Charlie (I am Charlie)" placard.

That slogan has been adopted by millions of demonstrators throughout France since the Charlie Hebdo massacre, which was followed by another jihadist attack in Paris that left another five people dead.

Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita took place in the main march in Paris on Sunday and denounced Friday's demonstration in Bamako.

Sunday's march in the French capital came exactly two years after French troops launched an offensive against Islamists in Mali.




© 1994-2015 Agence France-Presse