Mali PM Choguel Maiga placed on ‘forced rest’ by doctor

 

Mali Prime Minister Choguel Maiga has been placed on forced rest by his doctor on Saturday after months of intense exertion, his office has said.

“After 14 months of working without a break, the prime minister, head of government, Choguel Kokalla Maiga was placed on forced rest by his doctor,” his office said on its Facebook page on Saturday.

An adviser cited by the news agency Reuters denied earlier media reports on Paris-based Jeune Afrique magazine that Maiga had been hospitalized after suffering a stroke.

Mali’s ruling military government named the former opposition leader as prime minister of the transitional government it leads in June of last year, after a military coup in August 2020.

Maiga has been one of the government’s most outspoken voices in repeated public arguments with West African neighbors and international partners who have criticized its military cooperation with Russian mercenaries and repeated election delays.

ECOWAS, West Africa’s main political and economic bloc, has been pressing Mali to respect its commitment to hold presidential and legislative elections following an August 2020 military coup. The new leadership has promised to organize democratic elections in 2024.

Maiga repeatedly condemned France for its “abandonment” of Mali in its conflict against armed groups in the country, which has been the epicenter of a bloody 10-year-old campaign by armed groups in the region.

Earlier on Saturday, the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali announced it would resume troop rotations for the nearly 12,000-strong mission on Monday, one month after Malian authorities suspended them and accused foreign soldiers of entering the country without permission.

It said they would resume following discussions with representatives from the mission, known as MINUSMA, about how to coordinate troop deployments.

Mali said the Ivorian soldiers did not have proper authorization to come to Mali and accused them of being mercenaries.

A MINUSMA spokesperson told Reuters on Saturday that the mission and Malian authorities had agreed on a streamlined rotation procedure and that the mission’s request to resume rotations had been accepted.

Relations between Mali and troop-contributing countries remain strained. On Friday, Germany said it was suspending its military reconnaissance mission, which provides intelligence to MINUSMA, after Malian authorities withheld a flight clearance.

Mali’s foreign minister denied on Twitter that the government had done so and called on Germany to adhere to the new mechanism for approving troop rotations.

Western powers have repeatedly criticized Russian mercenaries working for Moscow’s controversial Wagner group deployed in Mali.