Soldiers in Mali Kill 7 in 3rd Day of Anti-Regime Protests

Soldiers fired on pro-democracy protesters for the third straight day Sunday, killing at least seven people, and then blocked hospitals to stop the wounded from getting help, witnesses said.

Addressing a pro-democracy rally in Bamako, the capital, Demba Diallo of the Malian Human Rights League said the death toll has reached at least 100, with about 1,000 wounded, since protests broke out Friday against President Moussa Traore’s 22-year rule. State radio reported that 34 had died.

Opposition leaders called a general strike to begin today, demanding Traore’s immediate resignation and a national conference to work out multi-party reforms in the impoverished West African nation.

Sporadic gunfire echoed throughout the capital on Sunday, and the thud of explosions could be heard well into the afternoon. Columns of smoke from burning buildings and barricades rose above the city of half a million.

“The capital is running with blood,” said Papa Coulibaly, an employee at the city’s Gabriel Toure Hospital.

Reporters saw hospital rooms brimming with hundreds of injured, including children and elderly, most of them suffering from gunshot wounds.

Witnesses accused soldiers and police of firing indiscriminately as several thousand demonstrators, somewhat fewer than during the two previous days, mounted scattered protests in the capital, blocking roads and burning cars and buildings.

Traore, who earlier in the day said he will not step down, met with opposition leaders and agreed to lift the state of emergency and curfew he had imposed at the outset of the protests, Mali Radio reported. Both sides said all violence should end.

The president also promised to immediately release all political prisoners detained during anti-government unrest in January and this month, according to the radio broadcast, monitored in London.