Kinshasa, January 17th, 2022 (CPA) – The President of the Republic Felix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo presented his condolences to the brotherly people of Mali and to the family of the former President of the Republic of Mali, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who died Sunday in the age of 76, in his residence in Bamako, Mali, we read on the twitter account of the Presidency of the Republic. “The President of the Republic learned with deep sadness of the death of His Excellency Mr. Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, former President of the Republic of Mali. The Head of State presents his condolences to his family and to the brotherly people of Mali,” it was noted.
The coup that overthrew him in August 2020, after 7 years in power (from 2013 to 2020), was followed by a second in May 2021.
The ruling junta led by Colonel Assimi Goïta has announced its intention to lead the country for several years, despite having previously pledged to organize presidential and legislative elections on February 27th to allow the return of civilians to power. .
According to the junta, it is not possible to organize presidential and legislative elections as planned for the end of February, citing the persistent insecurity in the country, plagued by violence of all kinds: jihadist, community, villainous. The junta stresses the need for prior reforms so that the elections do not suffer from disputes, like the previous ones.
The Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), sitting behind closed doors in Accra, Ghana, reacted vigorously to the junta’s plan.
To this end, they decided on January 9th to close the borders with Mali and to embargo the country, heavily sanctioning the junta’s intention to take the country « hostage » by remaining in power without an election. for years.
Brief biographical notes
Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta experienced a meteoric rise under Alpha Oumar Konaré, the first President (1992-2002) of Mali’s democratic era. He was notably Prime Minister from 1994 to 2000.
Unhappy contender in the 2002 presidential election, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta got his revenge by gaining access to the Koulouba Palace, the seat of the Malian presidency in Bamako, in 2013.
Despite a peace agreement signed in May-June 2015, the violence has persisted and has since spread to the center and south of the country, then to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.
He will be re-elected in 2018 against Soumaïla Cissé, then leader of the opposition and who died in December 2020 of Covid-19.
In September 2018, the re-elected president of Mali, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, was sworn in Bamako for a second term at the head of a country still plagued by jihadist attacks.
The north of the country had fallen in March-April 2012 under the control of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda, largely driven out or dispersed by a military intervention launched in January 2013 at the initiative of France, which continues today.
On August 18th, 2020, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta was overthrown by a putsch after several months of demonstrations against corruption and the powerlessness of the state in the face of insecurity. He was criticized for the state’s inability to bring peace to a country most of which is deprived of public services or schools and where the political class is considered to be largely corrupt.
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