Mali appoints an interim replacement for the ill civilian prime minister

Mali appoints an interim replacement for the ill civilian prime minister

This appointment means that the two most important government posts in Mali are currently in the hands of the army.

Mali’s military government has appointed a colonel, Abdoulaye Maiga, as a temporary replacement for the country’s civilian prime minister, who has been hospitalized.

Maiga is also a government spokesperson and minister of administration and territorial decentralization.

His appointment was announced in a decree read on state television last Sunday. Temporarily replaces a veteran civilian politician, Choguel Kokalla Maiga, 64, appointed Prime Minister after the soldiers who took power in August 2020 and carried out a second coup in May 2021.

ECOWAS, West Africa’s main political and economic bloc, has pressured Mali to honor its commitment to hold presidential and legislative elections following an August military coup. 2020. He promised to hold democratic elections in 2024.

The ill Maiga, who shares the same name as his interim successor, had served several times as a minister in previous governments.

He was an unsuccessful candidate in presidential elections in 2002, 2013, and 2018.

He was a founding member of the June 5 Movement – a coalition that had launched a wave of protests against Mali’s elected president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, before he was toppled in 2020.

In recent months, Maiga has come under criticism from many of his former allies for following the military’s line.

His replacement by a colonel means that both of Mali’s most senior government positions are currently in the hands of the military.

Coup leader Colonel Assimi Gotta had himself appointed transitional president after the May 2021 coup.