Mali’s military junta has appointed a colonel, Abdoulaye Maiga, as the interim replacement for the country’s civilian prime minister, who has been admitted to hospital.
Colonel Maiga is also a government spokesman and minister of territorial administration and decentralisation.
His appointment was announced in a decree read on state television late Sunday.
He provisionally replaces a veteran civilian politician, Choguel Kokalla Maiga, 64, who was named premier after the junta which took power in August 2020 and carried out a second coup in May 2021.
Maiga, who shares the same name as his interim successor, had served several times as a minister in previous governments.
He was an unsuccessful candidate in presidential elections in 2002, 2013, and 2018.
