BAMAKO: An organizer says 16 people have been injured in clashes between Mali’s security forces and opposition supporters during a prohibited march ahead of elections.

Cheick Diallo says the injured include two candidates for president in the July 29 election, Igor Diarra and Aliou Diallo. This is the first such clash ahead of the West African nation’s vote in which President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is running again.

The number of injured was confirmed by a member of the emergency service transporting them.

Opposition leaders organized Saturday’s march to call for free and transparent elections and for more state television coverage of their activities.

The governor of the capital, Bamako, banned the march under Mali’s state of emergency that was imposed in 2015 after an extremist attack on a local hotel.