Abdoulaye Maiga: Who is the new Prime Minister of Mali, appointed to replace Choguel Maiga?

The junta in power in Mali appointed General Abdoulaye Maiga late Thursday morning to replace Choguel Kokalla Maiga, civilian prime minister, dismissed the day before following a crisis with the military authorities.

It was just a month ago that Abdoulaye Maiga held the rank of general, after a council of ministers which approved the passage from the rank of colonel to general for five senior officials of the country, including the president of the transition Assimi Goita.

Known to be close to the President of the transition, Abdoulaye Maiga is a face that has become familiar to Malians. He is known for his virulent speeches against Westerners, particularly France.

The 43-year-old general has been in the government since 2021, where he served as Minister of Territorial Administration, before accumulating the function of government spokesperson, therefore, one of the main figures in the communication of the junta.

The government website presents him as an expert in international security and defense, conflict management and good governance, human rights and humanitarian law.

A policeman by training and holder of two doctorates, one in law and the other in management, he is also presented as having great capacity in high-level negotiation and the organization of conferences involving representatives of States or governmental and non-governmental organizations.

Mr. Maiga served at the African Union and ECOWAS, the sub-regional grouping, as an expert in terrorism warning and prevention, and helped reform the Congolese police as part of the United Nations mission. United in the DRC.

He joins a prime ministership that he already knows, since he served as a temporary worker there in 2022, when he temporarily replaced Choguel Maiga, then hospitalized.

He becomes the first soldier to be appointed to this position permanently since the double coup of 2020-2021 in the country.

Since last weekend, a crisis has erupted between the now former Malian Prime Minister (Choguel Maiga) and the military authorities in power. Which resulted in his dismissal as well as his entire government.

It was at the end of a decree from the President of the transition, Assimi Goita, read in the evening on public television. Abdoulaye Maiga, the new Prime Minister has not yet announced the appointment of his government team.

The latter should replace that of Choguel Maiga, swept away by a crisis that the former Prime Minister himself created.

On the occasion of the first anniversary of the recapture of the town of Kidal by the Malian army from the rebels, Choguel Kokalla Maiga castigated its sidelining by the transition authorities.

In front of his activists from the Rally of Patriotic Forces (M5-RFP), Mr. Maiga, in military uniform, addressed the delicate subject of the end of the transition.

“The transition was supposed to end on March 26, 2024, but it was postponed sine die, unilaterally, without debate within the government,” he declared.

For him, “the Prime Minister of a country cannot learn from the media that the elections have been postponed. It is on TV that the ministers learned that the elections have been postponed.”

Being applauded by the audience, the 66-year-old Prime Minister tries to reassure his supporters. “We have strategic patience… Some have understood this patience as weakness, but we have been used to fighting politically for 50 years,” he told the audience.

Warning, “the objective of today’s conference is to ensure that everyone understands that, where there are mistakes, we must pull ourselves together. The Malians will not accept never let what they fought return.”

Malian experts are all unanimous: this exit of the Malian Prime Minister would eventually happen.

“Choguel Maiga had become a de facto Prime Minister,” explains political journalist Mohamed Attaher Halidou, because, according to him, in recent months, the politician had continually called for clarification of the terms of the transition .

For Brahima Mamadou Koné, Malian political analyst, Mr. Maiga did not improvise this speech, but he knew how to use it to express a disagreement which had become blatant.

“He is someone who no longer shares the current vision of the conduct of government action, since the appointment of the Minister of Territorial Administration, Major General Abdoulaye Maiga. He said to himself: if I resign personally, I would kill myself politically, and said that we had to make this exit so that the head of state would dismiss him,” explains the political analyst.

A period of uncertainty therefore now begins, even if, for Mohamed Attaher Halidou, the Prime Minister has delivered a “divorce speech”, and from now on, Mr. Maiga is “a wounded political animal”.

For Brahima Mamadou Koné went further, confiding to the BBC that cohabitation was now impossible between the two camps leading the transition. According to him, we risk witnessing “blocked government action”, he specifies.

This is now the big question. Choguel Kokalla Maiga has been supporting the transition authorities in Mali for more than three years.

Known as one of the leaders of the Rally of Patriotic Forces (M5-RFP), the group behind the protests that led to the coup d’état overthrow against President Ibrahim Boubakar Keita, Mr. Maiga is positioned, according to experts, as the main civilian figure of the transition.

A divorce between him and the military cannot therefore be done without consequences, our experts believe. He is, according to the latter, a stone that could be put in the shoes of the military authorities in place in Mali.

Especially since Choguel Maiga holds a formidable weapon, a wing of the M5-RFP movement, of which he is the leader. “This branch could become a force of protest against the Transition authorities,” believes Brahima Mamadou Koné.

In addition, having been head of government for more than three years, Mr. Maiga now knows the state apparatus. For Mohamed Attaher Halidou, “he could launch into an unpacking of state affairs which would undermine the authorities.”

However, we should not overestimate his strengths, procrastinates political scientist Brahima Mamadou Koné, for whom “Choguel Maiga has the charisma of his function as Prime Minister. If he is removed from his functions, he will no longer be able to establish himself as leader able to bring together the M5-RFP, which brings together three distinct factions today.

Mali has been ruled by the military since August 2020, after a coup against President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, which followed months of protests from civil society and the political class.

Less than a year later, another coup d’état this time targeted, in May 2021, the authorities having taken power from President Keita.

The new leader, now General Assimi Goita (colonel at the time), promised to organize elections in February 2025, before postponing them to an unknown date, citing “technical reasons” without giving further details.