Mali appoints interim replacement for ill civilian prime minister

The Malian military government has appointed a colonel, Abdoulaye Maiga, as the interim replacement for the country’s civilian prime minister, who has been admitted to hospital.

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Maiga is also the government spokesman as well as its minister of territorial administration and decentralisation.

His appointment was announced in a decree read on state television late on Sunday.

Choguel Kokalla Maiga, a veteran of Malian politics, was chosen to be the head of government after the second putsch in May 2021. He was hospitalised eight days ago after a heart attack, according to a hospital official.

His services had then simply indicated that after “14 months of uninterrupted work, (he had) been put on forced rest by his doctor”. They announced his return to work the following week. But there has been no further official news from him since then.

He has been criticised for several months by many political cadres who are calling for his resignation and by many of his former allies in the 5-Jun Movement, of which he is a founder and which played a leading role in the protests that preceded the military takeover in 2020.

MTO/Africanews