Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on Monday appointed Boubou Cisse as the country’s prime minister, days after the government resigned following an increase in violence in the restive West African country.
“The President of the Republic has decided to name Doctor Boubou Cisse to the function of the prime minister,” Keita’s office said in a statement released on Monday, reported Fox News.
The 45-year-old finance minister, Cisse, has replaced Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga, who resigned under pressure over the March 23 killings close to the country’s border with Burkina Faso. Maiga and his government came under fire for failing to disarm militias and beat back Islamist militants who were behind the violence that led to the Fulani massacre.
The massacre is suspected to have been carried out by the Dogon ethnic group in Ogossagou, a village in central Mali, in which nearly 160 people were killed. It is one of the deadliest attacks the country has experienced in years.
Cisse, who does not belong to any political party, served as Mali’s finance minister for three years under the previous government. He previously worked as an economist at The World Bank Group and later as the Washington-based lender’s country representative in Niger and Nigeria.
As per the statement, Cisse has been tasked with forming a “broad government” to stem the bloodshed in the country.
Notably, both Mali and neighboring Burkina Faso have been hit by the spike in hostilities carried out by Islamist militants seeking to extend their influence over the Sahel, an arid region between Africa’s northern Sahara desert and its southern savannas.
In related news, some unidentified gunmen killed at least 11 soldiers in an attack Sunday in central Mali. According to the defense ministry, the military outpost at Guire was attacked at around five in the morning causing a number of injuries and damage, reported Reuters.
