The head of the military junta in Mali, Col. Azimi Koeda, on Sunday appointed another colonel, Minister Abdoulaye Maika, as interim prime minister. He replaces Sokwele Gokalla Maika who was hospitalized a few days ago.
“Colonel Abdullahi Maika, Minister of Regional Administration and Decentralization, has been appointed to take over from the Prime Minister, Head of Government, Mr. Sokwele Gokalla Maika,” read a decree read on state television. Apart from the important decentralization portfolio, the forty-year-old Abdullahi Maika was also the government’s spokesperson.
Little known before he was appointed to the post at the end of 2021, he has spent the past few months wearing his trellis, making some of the government’s most striking announcements on national television and his most outspoken statements against France. He “requested” President Emmanuel Macron to “resolutely abandon his neo-colonial, paternalistic and condescending posture” at the end of July.
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Colonel Maika is said not to have been part of the circle of officers who seized power by force with Colonel Koida in August 2020. But he is considered close to the Malian strongman, and has become the voice of a political break with France and its allies. In May 2021, a second regime was launched after the removal of the civilian president and prime minister. Colonel Koida was invested as the interim chief.
Two players in power
With the appointment of Colonel Maika as head of government, the two heads of the administration are at least temporarily soldiers, while the colonels resigned themselves under international pressure after the 2020 regime, handing over both positions to civilians. decision making.
After a second term in May 2021, Soguele Gokalla Maika, a veteran of Malian politics, was elected head of government. He was admitted to the hospital eight days ago due to a heart attack, a hospital official said.
His services were satisfactory noting that “after working without rest for 14 months, (he) was put on compulsory retirement by his doctor”. They announced that he would return to work next week. But after that no other news about him was released officially.
He has been criticized for months by many political leaders calling for his resignation, as well as by many of his former allies in the June 5 Movement, of which he was one of the founders and played a key role in the protests before the takeover. By the Army in 2020.
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