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Malian security forces used tear gas on Wednesday to disperse an unsanctioned protest in the capital Bamako against France’s military presence in the country, one of the rally’s organisers said.

France has more than 5 100 military personnel based in Mali and the West African Sahel region to help counter militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State, an involvement that is facing increased opposition at home and in Mali.

Malian authorities, who have denounced those opposed to the French military presence, Reuters writes, deployed police in riot gear to block around 1 000 protesters from gathering in Bamako’s Independence Square, said organiser Adama Diarra.

“We demand the departure of French forces. After eight years of intervention it’s been a total failure,” he said by phone.

France deployed troops to Mali in 2013 to help drive out Islamist militants who had occupied the north of the country after hijacking a Tuareg rebellion.

Though the fighters have been pushed from main towns, Mali has failed to stabilise while the militants have regrouped and have carried out attacks in a prolonged insurgency.

The violence has spread to neighbouring states, stoked ethnic and intercommunal tensions, and rendered large swathes of the country’s semi-arid north ungovernable.

On Tuesday, President Emmanuel Macron said France could adjust its military operations in the Sahel region. Diplomatic and military sources expect a partial French withdrawal to be announced by mid-February.

Interim Malian President Bah N’daw on Tuesday thanked foreign militaries, including France’s, for continued support.

In what will most certainly go down as Africa’s first big shipment of the vaccines for the coronavirus pandemic, Morocco, on Friday, received 2 million doses of Astrazeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine.

With that quantity of shipment, the North African country became the first African country to get a large enough shipment to roll out a nationwide immunisation programme.

The consignment, according to Reuters, arrived on a Royal Air Maroc flight from India, which began exporting the vaccine, developed in conjunction with Oxford University, to mid-and lower-income countries this week.

The vast majority of the production of the three most widely approved Covid vaccines, including the Astrazeneca drug, has so far been hoovered up by developed nations.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus this week described the unequal access poor countries had to Covid-19 vaccines as a “catastrophic moral failure”.

Rabat has placed orders for 65 million doses, comprising 25 million of the AstraZeneca vaccine – for which it has dealt with both Serum Institute of India (SII) and Russia’s R-Pharm – and the remainder with China’s Sinopharm.

Morocco plans a free vaccination campaign targeting 25 million people or 80% of its population, starting with health workers. By Friday, it had reported 463,706 coronavirus infections, including 8,076 deaths.

Although Egypt received 50,000 vaccine doses in December from its close ally the United Arab Emirates, no African country had up to now received enough supply to start mass inoculations.

India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, began exporting the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine to neighbouring Asian countries on Wednesday. The SII also planned to ship doses to Brazil on Friday, Reuters reported.

The AstraZeneca vaccine requires two doses, but unlike some other vaccines, it does not need ultra-cold storage, making it easier to roll out in hot countries and remote locations.