The Divisional Police Commissioner, Oumar Samaké, commander of the Special Antiterrorist Force (FORSAT), in Mali went voluntarily to camp 1 of the Bamako gendarmerie on Monday (6 September), said a security source who requested anonymity.
Samaké had been forcibly released on Friday by heavily armed police officers, hours only after being detained in Bamako for his alleged role in the bloody crackdown on the July 2020 protest. His liberation had been seriously criticised by the government, magistrates' unions, politicians and ordinary citizens.
On Monday morning, Samaké, the police unions, and the Minister of Security held an emergency meeting on the issue of the former's surrender. According to a security source, it was a the end of this meeting that the minister asked the commander of the FORSAT to return to prison.
In a television statement the following day, the government asked "everyone to be reassured", assuring that the fight against impunity would continue.
