According to a government announcement, Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, Mali‘s minister of territory administration, has been named acting prime minister.
Leader Choguel Maiga, who is now recuperating amid media claims that he had been hospitalizsd, will be replaced by Abdoulaye Maiga, who is currently the government’s spokesperson.
The Paris-based Jeune Afrique magazine stated earlier this month that Choguel Maiga had experienced a stroke, citing personal sources.
In response, one of Choguel Maiga’s counselors asserted that he would return to work by the next week. However, the leader didn’t.
A military junta that ruled Mali following a coup in 2020 has pledged to hold free and fair elections there in 2024.
In multiple public disagreements with West African neighbors and foreign allies who criticised the government’s military cooperation with Russian mercenaries and repeated election delays, Choguel Maiga has been one of the harshest opponents.
Abdoulaye Maiga, who serves as the government’s spokesperson, has also been outspoken in his criticism of France, a former colonial power, including urging Macron to stop acting in a “neocolonial” and “condescending” manner in July.
Maiga served as Prime Minister of Mali from April 8, 2017 to December 29, 2017. Previously he was Minister of Defence since September 3, 2016.
As Defence Minister he succeeded Tiéman Hubert Coulibaly, who resigned after the takeover of the village of Boni by insurgents. Maïga previously served as Minister of Territorial Administration and Minister for the Environment, Water and Sanitation.
During the 2013 presidential election, he was campaign director of Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, who was elected as President.