Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has appointed a new prime minister, days after the government resigned amid a spike in violence in the restive West African country.
Former Finance Minister Boubou Cisse, 41, has been tasked with forming a “broad government” to stem the bloodshed in the country, the presidential office announced in a statement on Monday.
Cisse does not belong to any political party and served as the country’s finance minister for three years under the previous government.
Mali’s former Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga and his government resigned on Thursday, weeks after a massacre of almost 160 herders from the Fulani community by an ethnic vigilante group in the town of Ogossagou shocked the nation.
While no reason was given for the resignation, it came amid heavy criticism that Maiga had failed to deal with the country’s worsening security situation.
Both Mali and neighbouring Burkina Faso have been hit by a spike in hostilities heightened by Islamist armed groups seeking to extend their influence over the Sahel, an arid region between Africa’s northern Sahara desert and its southern savannas.
