The civilian veneer of the Malian military regime has cracked. Four days after violently criticizing the junta led by General Assimi Goïta, Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maïga was dismissed on Wednesday, November 20, along with his government. Appointed in June 2021, a day after the second coup d’état led in less than a year by Goïta in Bamako, he was replaced on Thursday by General Abdoulaye Maïga, until now Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization. Close to General Goïta, he appeared as the second prime minister against a Choguel Maïga marginalized for many months by the coup plotters.
Their relationships continued to deteriorate, reaching a point of no return on Saturday, November 16. That day, in Bamako, in front of his supporters of the June 5 Movement-Rally of Patriotic Forces (M5-RFP, the movement that led the popular protest of spring 2020 that precipitated the overthrow of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta by the military), Choguel Maïga denounced the decision “unilateral” of the board to extend the transition period.
“ This is not normal in a government. The Prime Minister cannot find out from the media that the elections [initialement prévues en février 2024] are postponed without debate within the government”, “He shouted, dressed in a sand uniform, he who, before his appointment as head of the executive, had many times criticized the militarization of power. In the process, several pro-junta civil society organizations called for the expulsion of this old man backpacker of Malian politics, several times minister and candidate for the supreme office on three occasions (2002, 2013 and 2018). This was finally done on Wednesday evening, after the weekly Council of Ministers. postponed at the last minute.
But the junta has not silenced its former ally. “Some transitional institutions have organized to attack the prime minister. Everything possible was done to weaken him. Nothing was saved! It was necessary to eliminate him politically at all costs.”He denounced in a message posted on his Facebook page during the night from Wednesday to Thursday. A sense of formula placed for a long time at the service of the coup plotters, both to attack the political class and the international community, starting with France, which he had accused of“abandonment in mid-flight” at the United Nations in December 2021.
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