Mali opposition leader says quitting politics after Keita's ouster

Influential Malian imam and opposition leader Mahmoud Dicko on Friday thanked the military junta which ousted the country's president from power this week and said he would leave politics.

"I am going back to the mosque, I am an imam," said the religious leader whose role was crucial in the mobilisation against President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, adding that he wanted to "unite all Malians".

Mali's new military rulers heaped praise on the public on Friday at an opposition rally staged three days after the coup that ousted President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

"We have come here to thank you, to thank the Malian public for its support. We merely completed the work that you began and we recognise ourselves in your fight," the junta's spokesman, Ismael Wague, told thousands of supporters of the June 5 Movement, which had launched protests demanding that Keita resign.

Friday's "victory rallies" had initially been scheduled as a new round of demonstrations, but were recast by the opposition as celebrations after Keita was overthrown on Tuesday.