The current Minister of Decentralization replaces Civil Choguel Maïga, hospitalized a few days ago. The two heads of the Malian executive are, at least temporarily, soldiers.
Le Monde with AFP
The head of the junta in Mali, Colonel Assimi Goïta, appointed, on Sunday, August 21, another colonel, Minister Abdoulaye Maïga, acting Prime Minister replacing the Civil Choguel Maïga, hospitalized a few days ago.
In addition to the important portfolio of territorial administration and decentralization, Abdoulaye Maïga, in his forties, was also the government spokesperson.
little known before his appointment in this position at the end of 2021, he regularly made on national television, in recent months – and clothed in his trellis -, some of the most significant announcements of the government and declarations aimed at France ; He had thus “demanded” at the end of July from President Emmanuel Macron, which he left “definitively his neocolonial, paternalistic and condescending” posture “.
Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga passes for not having been part of the circle of officers who took power by force with Colonel Goïta in August 2020. But he is considered close to the strong man of Mali and became The voice of the policy of rupture with France and its allies engaged after a second putsch which, in May 2021, had dismissed the civilian president and Prime Minister. Colonel Goïta was then investigated as transitional president.
With the designation of Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga as head of government, the two heads of the executive are, at least temporarily, soldiers, while the colonels had resigned themselves under international pressure after the 2020 putsch To entrust the two positions to civilians, while retaining the upper hand on the decisions.
Choguel Maïga, a veteran of Malian politics, had been chosen to be the head of government after the second putsch in May 2021. He was hospitalized eight days ago after a heart discomfort, according to a hospital. His services were then content to announce that after “fourteen months of work without respite, [he had] been put in rest forced by his doctor”. They announced his return to work the following week, but no other news of him has been officially given since then.
He has been criticized for several months for several months who are asking for his resignation and by many of his former allies of the June 5 movement, of which he is one of the founders and who played a leading role in The protest having preceded the taking of power by the soldiers in 2020.