Bamako, April 22, 2019 (AFP) – Mali’s president on Monday named economy and finance minister Boubou Cisse as the new prime minister tasked with forming a “broad government” to stem bloodshed in the country, an official statement said. Cisse is to replace Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga, who resigned on April 18 following a massacre of around 160 people on March 23 near the border with Burkina Faso.
Inter-communal violence has claimed some 600 lives since March 2018, according to a UN tally, and forced thousands from their homes. President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita met with envoys from majority and opposition parties to mull “the constitution of a broad government” able to join forces and advance a national process of reconstruction, his office said in the statement.
Maiga was forced out by a motion of no confidence that blamed him for failing to clamp down on unrest, in particular between the nomadic Fulani people and ethnic Dogon, a hunting and farming community. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Bamako on April 5 to
protest against the upsurge of violence, accusing the government of not doing enough to stop it. Cisse has been the economy and finance minister for more than three years, and previously held the industry and mines portfolio.
By AFP
