<p>Malian opposition leader Mahmoud Dicko on Wednesday urged people to protest en masse on Friday, despite recent government overtures towards the resurgent political opposition in the war-torn West African state.</p>.<p>Dicko, an influential imam, accused President Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of ignoring tens of thousands of people who had protested and demanded that he resign on June 5.</p>.<p>"He hasn't learned his lesson, he doesn't listen to people," Dicko told local media in his native Bambara. "But this time he will understand".</p>.<p>His statement comes after Keita announced on Tuesday that he would hold talks on establishing a unity government, in a move apparently intended to appease increasingly vocal opposition critics.</p>.<p>The president has been under pressure to solve a spiralling security crisis in Mali, which first broke out in the north in 2012.</p>.<p>The violence has since spread to the centre of the country, inflaming ethnic tensions, as well as to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.</p>.<p>Thousands of soldiers and civilians have died in the conflict, while hundreds of thousands more have had to flee their homes.</p>.<p>Failure to stop the bloodshed, as well as a flagging economy and a perception of widespread corruption, has fed support for opposition groups in Mali.</p>.<p>Dicko is an Islamic hardliner and one of the main leaders of the so-called "June 5" movement, a coalition of opposition groups that takes its name from the mass anti-Keita demonstration held earlier this month.</p>
<p>Malian opposition leader Mahmoud Dicko on Wednesday urged people to protest en masse on Friday, despite recent government overtures towards the resurgent political opposition in the war-torn West African state.</p>.<p>Dicko, an influential imam, accused President Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of ignoring tens of thousands of people who had protested and demanded that he resign on June 5.</p>.<p>"He hasn't learned his lesson, he doesn't listen to people," Dicko told local media in his native Bambara. "But this time he will understand".</p>.<p>His statement comes after Keita announced on Tuesday that he would hold talks on establishing a unity government, in a move apparently intended to appease increasingly vocal opposition critics.</p>.<p>The president has been under pressure to solve a spiralling security crisis in Mali, which first broke out in the north in 2012.</p>.<p>The violence has since spread to the centre of the country, inflaming ethnic tensions, as well as to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.</p>.<p>Thousands of soldiers and civilians have died in the conflict, while hundreds of thousands more have had to flee their homes.</p>.<p>Failure to stop the bloodshed, as well as a flagging economy and a perception of widespread corruption, has fed support for opposition groups in Mali.</p>.<p>Dicko is an Islamic hardliner and one of the main leaders of the so-called "June 5" movement, a coalition of opposition groups that takes its name from the mass anti-Keita demonstration held earlier this month.</p>