Malian justice has rejected several appeals that sought to overturn the military government’s decision to ban political parties, according to a statement sent Friday by members of the dissolved parties.

The junta, led by General Assimi Goita, announced on May 13 the dissolution of all political parties and organisations, as well as a ban on meetings.

Members of the parties filed appeals to several courts in Bamako, seeking to challenge the legality of the presidential decree enacting their dissolution and its consequences.

“The applicants will continue their fight by appealing to the Bamako Court of Appeal,” said the statement, signed by Mountaga Tall, a lawyer and head of the National Congress for Democratic Initiative (Cnid), one of the dissolved parties.

They have “already approached” the Supreme Court and “the battle will continue in Mali as well as internationally,” the statement read.

The parties maintain that the ban constitutes a serious infringement of the freedom of association, assembly and right to participate in public life.

About 300 political groups have been identified in Mali to date and the junta maintains that dissolution is a way of streamlining numbers.

It is the latest in a series of restrictions on freedoms taken by the military, which came to power in back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021.

At the end of April, a junta-led national consultation recommended the dissolution of political parties and tougher rules for their creation.

It also recommended making General Goita president for a renewable five-year term, despite a pledge to hand back power to civilians by March last year.

Mali has been gripped since 2012 by violence from jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group as well as local criminal gangs.