Bamako - Lawmakers from the majority party and opposition in Mali submitted a motion of no confidence Wednesday against the government they blame for failing to stop violence in the country's centre.
A parliamentary vote, of which the outcome is unsure, will take place Friday.
"We are a number of MPs from the opposition and from the majority. We are hereby submitting a motion of no confidence against the government," Sory Kouriba, president of the parliamentary group Rally for Mali (RPM) -- the party of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita -- told the National Assembly.
He was accompanied by Amadou Maiga of the URD, one of Mali's main opposition parties.
"The critical situation that the country is experiencing, the governance (of the country), has forced members of the opposition and the majority to submit a motion of no confidence against the government," another MP told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"This government cannot continue."
The motion follows a protest march by tens of thousands of people in Bamako on April 5 against a surge of violence in central Mali and the government's inability to stop it.
The protest was called by Muslim religious leaders, organisations representing the Fulani herding community, opposition parties and civil society groups following the massacre of some 160 people in the village of Ogossagou on March 23.
Mali has been struggling to restore stability since Islamist extremists took control of the country's north in early 2012, prompting a military intervention by France.
Extremism and lawlessness continue, sharpening ancient rivalries in the ethnic mosaic of central Mali.