Friday, January 21, the funeral of Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta were organized by the civil-military power that caused his fall, in August 2020.
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The ceremony itself was a symbol, the summary of events that changed the Mali these past eighteen months. This Friday, January 21, hundreds of soldiers lined up along the parade’s 34 th Bamako military engineering battalion watched go, still, the remains of former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta (IBK), covered with the national flag and carried by six men in dress uniform.
After the black carpet where the body is deposited, Choguel Maiga, the current Prime Minister of the transition, presided over the ceremony, without saying a word. In spring 2020 it was one of the instigators of the great popular demonstrations demanding the departure of IBK and eventually cause it to fall during the military coup of 18 August. He also was chosen to head the government set up after the second coup in May 2021.
Death January 16 following a long illness, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, who ruled the Mali from 2013 to 2020, was seen as making last respects by the very people who forced him to leave power.
Meditation and consensus
But this Friday national mourning, it was to wipe out political battles of the past. Time for contemplation and consensus appears to say goodbye to “this great baobab coming to bow”, “pragmatic Democrat”, “Republican at heart” and “culture lovers” to the “legendary generosity “who used to say that he had the Mali” pegged to the body. “
“He had no bitterness and did not want anyone”, noted the desk Boubacar Keita, his third son, briefly retracing the last weeks of this father President who, since his forced withdrawal from life political, “almost begged his listeners to come to help those who have the burden of Mali today.”
who defeated her, IBK had, according to his entourage, forgiven gesture. Refraining from any public comment on the national political situation “despite his ardent desire to delve into its rich library, he could not lose interest in the problems of Mali. It gnawed at him more than anything,” said Aminata Jeanne Keita, a granddaughter of the former president, facing an assembly composed mainly of Malian guests.
many absences
Reflecting the growing isolation of the country, the funeral of the former leader have indeed been marked by numerous absences.
First the delegations of heads of State of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The junta who, despite international pressure, decided not to return power as promised after elections on February 27, Mali was placed under embargo by its neighbors. In January, after the announcement by the junta for a transition that would last six and a half years, the sub-regional body gave heavy sanctions, particularly economic and financial, against the country and the closure of borders. This Jan. 21, only a delegation from Guinea was present. Like Bamako, Conakry is run by a young Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya himself who ousted President Alpha Condé in September 2021.
At the international level, France, the European Union, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United States, Japan or the United Arab Emirates and China were represented. “We will retain a great statesman and a person very attached to France. IBK was a Parisian, like me,” testified Joel Meyer, Ambassador of France in Mali.
Other absent from the ceremony: Karim Keita, eldest son of the former president. He who was Chairman of the Defense Committee of the National Assembly is, since the summer of 2021, within the scope of a warrant for his alleged involvement in the assassination of Malian journalist Birama Touré, disappeared in 2016. Karim Keita took refuge in Ivory Coast.