Mali: the junta completes the militarization of the executive with a general prime minister
The junta in power in Mali completed the militarization of the executive on Thursday by appointing a general, Abdoulaye Maïga, to the post of Prime Minister in place of the civilian Choguel Kokalla Maïga, dismissed after having criticized the vagueness on the departure date of the military .
General Maïga, until now government spokesperson and as such uniformed messenger of the junta’s most resounding announcements, replaces a civilian veteran of politics.
His appointment confirms the undivided appropriation of positions of power by the military in command since 2020 of this poor and landlocked country, faced with jihadism and a deep multidimensional crisis.
“Major General Abdoulaye Maïga is appointed Prime Minister,” indicates a decree from the head of the junta, General Assimi Goïta, read in a special flash on state television by the secretary general of the presidency, Alfousseyni Diawara.
The new government was announced a few hours later by another special flash. Those close to the former Prime Minister are excluded. The main portfolios retain their holders, including those of Defense and Reconciliation, in the hands of two of the main figures of the junta.
Abdoulaye Maïga, 43, is one of the most public faces of the junta, responsible for reading presidential decrees and most of the thunderous declarations from the authorities, which have not been lacking since the 2020 putsch.
Generally in a beret and fatigues, he was the voice on television of the break with the former French colonial power and its allies, and of the strategic turn towards Russia after a second coup d’état by the same soldiers in 2021 .
It was he who in January 2022 asked the then French Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly to remain silent, quoting the French poet Alfred de Vigny.
In September 2022, this holder of a baccalaureate in languages and literature summoned to the podium of the United Nations another great name in French poetry, Victor Hugo, by overwhelming criticism of France, the Secretary General of the UN Antonio Guterres and some West African leaders.
He then acted for a few months for the man he is replacing today at the head of government, who had suffered a stroke.
The officer was called upon to announce the termination of defense agreements with France, cry out for exploitation in the face of accusations of UN abuses against the national army, and publicize the ban on French media. RFI and France 24.
– “Total opacity” –
In 2024 alone, he announced on behalf of the junta the end of an important peace agreement with the northern independence rebels, the suspension of the activities of political parties and the severance of diplomatic relations with Ukraine.
It was up to him in 2023 to advise that the presidential election of February 2024, supposed to open the way for the return of civilians, would experience “a slight postponement for technical reasons” and that new dates would be communicated “later “.
They still haven’t been.
General Maïga presents a voluminous CV of diplomas and training awarded in Mali, France or Algeria, including a doctorate in international security. A police officer by training, he worked for the African Union, the Community of West African States and the UN stabilization mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Unlike members of the junta, starting with its leader, he is not known to have fought in the war.
He was not in the first circle of colonels who overthrew civilian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta in August 2020 and who have since been elevated to the rank of general. He quickly joined them.
General Maïga takes the head of the government while the military maintains complete vagueness about their possible departure.
They denounced the commitment they had initially made under international pressure to return power to civilians in March 2024 after elections.
General Goïta is expected to be a likely candidate for a future presidential election, despite other initial commitments not to seek the mandate at the end of a period (the “transition”) during which they promised to restore stability and the sovereignty of their country.
Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maïga was dismissed along with the government on Wednesday for criticizing the “total opacity” in which the military remained in control of the country. His appointment in 2021 was considered the civil guarantee of the “transition”. He was seen as isolated, with limited capacity for action.
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