Mali’s Prime Minister has resigned along with his entire government yesterday after it came under mounting pressure over handling the violence in the restive Mopti region.

The rage was rising especially after a massacre on March 23 in which 160 people were killed in the village of Ogossagou near the border with Burkina Faso.

A statement from President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita’s office said he had accepted Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga’s resignation, along with those of his ministers.

The statement said, a Prime Minister will be named very soon and a new government will be put in place after consultations with all political forces from both the ruling and opposition sides.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Bamako on April 5 to protest against the upsurge of violence, accusing the government of not doing enough to stop it.

Mali has been struggling to restore stability since Islamist extremists linked to Al-Qaeda took control of the country’s vast desert north in early 2012.