Malian PM resigns over surge of violence

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Mali's prime minister and cabinet resigned Thursday following a motion of no confidence in the government over its handling of violence in the center of the country, according to the presidency.

A statement from President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita's office said he had accepted Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga's resignation, along with that of his ministers, after mass protests last month over the rising tide of violence.

The statement said a successor would be named soon, once consultations with ruling and opposition parties had taken place.

The government had come under mounting pressure over its handling of violence in the restive Mopti region and especially a mass killing on March 23 in which 160 people were killed in the village of Ogossagou near the border with Burkina Faso.

Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga, prime minister of the Republic of Mali (L), speaks to media next to Jean-Yves Le Drian, minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France, at UN headquarters in New York, March 29, 2019. /Reuters Photo

Members of the Dogon ethnic group, a hunting and farming community with a long history of tension with the nomadic Fulani people over access to land, were accused of being behind the mass killing.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Bamako on April 5 to protest the upsurge of violence, accusing the government of not doing enough to stop it.

The protest was called by Muslim religious leaders, organizations representing the Fulani herding community, opposition parties and civil society groups.

(Cover: Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita /Reuters Photo)

Source(s): Reuters