Opposition activists arrested in a crackdown in Mali were moved to prisons

Opposition politicians who were arrested in a crackdown in Mali were sent to prisons across the country this week, their families said, in a move rights groups decried as another step back for the country where the ruling junta has suspended all political activities.

Mali, a landlocked nation in the semiarid region of Sahel, has been embroiled in political instability that swept across West and Central Africa over the last decade. The…