A Malian army general and former government minister, Moussa Sinko Coulibaly, has resigned from his position to stand in the country’s presidential elections next year.
Coulibaly is the second person to declare his candidacy, after Kalifa Sanogo, the mayor of Mali’s second-largest city, Sikasso, who announced his bid in July.
The two are hoping to unseat incumbent President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who is yet to declare his candidature, though is widely expected to seek re-election.
AFP quotes Coulibaly top have said that he wanted to “contribute in another manner to find solutions to the political, economic, educational, cultural and social challenges facing our country.”
He was a member of the army forces which toppled Mali’s government in a coup in 2012, which ushered in a wave of violence by Islamist extremists that was halted only after an intervention by French forces in January 2013.
The country returned to democracy the following August, when Keita was elected president.
Coulibaly was minister of territorial administration in the transition government, a post he kept for several months in Keita’s cabinet.
Last week the government said regional elections scheduled for December 17 would now be held in April, a move which drew the ire of several groups which signed the 2015 accord.
