Mali’s former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita breathed his last at his home in Bamako on Sunday, his family confirmed. The cause of his death has not yet been officially announced, reported Reuters.
“President IBK died this morning at 09:00 GMT in his home,” a family member told the AFP news agency.
Keita was involved in politics for more than three decades, serving as a socialist prime minister from 1994 to 2000. He was elected as Mali’s president in September 2013. He was re-elected five years in 2018 against Soumaïla Cissé, the then leader of the opposition, who died in December 2020 of Covid-19.
But an economic crisis, widespread corruption, slow reforms, disputed elections, and deteriorating conditions of public services and schools, resulted in anti-Keita sentiment among Malians, sparking large protests in Bamako.
The mass protests led to Keita’s ousting by Mali’s military in August 2020. The military junta that emerged from the rebellion released him weeks later and returned him to his residence in Bamako, under surveillance.
Weeks later after the coup, he suffered a minor stroke and was flown to the United Arab Emirates for medical treatment. After returning back, Keita kept a low profile and lived in Bamako with his wife Aminata who made frequent trips to Ivory Coast to visit their sons living there.
Mali’s military leaders staged a second coup in May last year, toppling a civilian transitional government. The ruling military junta announced a further five-year delay to elections that were scheduled to happen in February this year. This last action made the European Union and Mali’s neighboring countries in the West African regional bloc (ECOWAS) to impose sanctions on the country.
The sanctions include imposing a trade embargo and shutting borders, in a decision backed by the United States, the European Union, and former colonial power France.
