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| - Prime Minister Boubou Cisse on Tuesday reached out to Mali's protest movement, saying it was "awaited and strongly desired" in a unity government to tackle the country's deep political crisis. "I hope that this offer of dialogue... can be heard by the stakeholders of the M5-RFP -- not just heard but accepted," Cisse said, referring to the June 5 Movement by its formal name. On Monday, West African leaders, conferring in a virtual summit of the 15-nation regional bloc ECOWAS, set down proposals for a unity government that would include the dissidents. But the June 5 Movement -- named after the date when a wave of mass protests began -- heaped scorn on the package and reiterated demands for President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita to quit. Cisse made the overture after chairing the first meeting of a small group of six ministers, appointed by Keita late Monday as the core of the would-be unity government. The West African state has been mired in a weeks-long crisis over Keita's performance seven years into his presidency. He is struggling with a moribund economy and a jihadist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes. There is also anger over the outcome of legislative elections that handed 31 disputed seats to Keita's party. "The added value of this smaller-scale executive is to be able to negotiate, in the shortest possible time, the way out of the crisis... and very swiftly move towards setting up a government of national unity," Cisse said. "I would like to use this moment to make an appeal, a sincere appeal to our sisters and brothers of the M5-RFP and other groups" to enter this government, he said. "I would like to say that they are awaited and strongly desired in the next government set-up, which should be established immediately." The UN Security Council on Monday threw its weight behind the ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) effort. It urged "the Malian parties to act on these recommendations without delay in order to resolve the tensions, to prioritise dialogue and to refrain from any action likely to fuel further tensions and threaten the rule of law." bur-siu/ri/gd
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