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Mali: Former President Keïta dies at 76

2022-01-16T15:54:12.626Z


He ruled the country from 2013 to 2020 during a period of great instability. Now Mali's former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta is dead. He died at the age of 76.


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Mali's ex-president Keïta in June 2020

Photo: POOL / REUTERS

Mali's former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta is dead. This is reported by the country's official bodies and state media.

Keïta, who ruled the country until 2020, died at his home in the capital Bamako on Sunday morning at the age of 76, according to the AFP news agency, citing Keïta's family.

The family did not provide any information on the cause of death.

From 1994 to 2000, Keïta was Prime Minister under the first democratically elected President, Alpha Oumar Konaré.

He was appointed to the highest office in 2013 and was deposed in a coup in 2020.

Keïta's term of office thus coincided with the period of great instability that has shaped the political situation in Mali since 2012.

There have been two military coups in Mali in the past two years.

First, in August 2020, the military led by Colonel Assimi Goïta overthrew then-President Keïta.

In May 2021, Goïta then deposed the civilian head of an interim government and appointed himself interim president.

The political situation in the country has been characterized by severe instability since 2012; Jihadist-motivated violence plays an important role in this. At that time, a conflict broke out in the north of the country, which has spread across the whole of Mali. At that time, Islamists from North Africa allied themselves with Tuareg; an uprising broke out, and the militias quickly took control of the northern regions of the country. The conflict later spread to central Mali and the neighboring countries of Burkina Faso and Niger.

Foreign forces and UN peacekeeping forces are fighting alongside the Malian army against the insurgents.

Thousands of civilians have been killed in their attacks in recent years, and millions have fled their homes.

The Bundeswehr has stationed 1050 soldiers as part of the UN peacekeeping force MINUSMA in Mali.

Another almost 350 soldiers from Germany are involved in a European training mission.

At the beginning of January it became known that after the withdrawal of French troops from a base in Timbuktu, according to the Malian armed forces, Russian soldiers had moved in.

Among them are said to be mercenaries from the Wagner group.

fdi/AFP

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-01-16

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