Mali’s new prime minister faces entrenched challenges

Subject

Mali's new prime minister.

Significance

Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga resigned on April 18 after just 16 months in office. His cabinet also resigned. Four days later, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (IBK) appointed outgoing Finance Minister Boubou Cisse as Maiga’s replacement. The shakeup was ostensibly related to recent ethnic massacres in central Mali, but Maiga’s departure likely also reflects the president’s desire to reassert his own power.

Impacts

• Maiga was a key intermediary with northern elites; his departure leaves a void that, if not filled, could deepen tensions with the north.
• The constitutional reform process may now slow; if mishandled, the same opposition that doomed the process in 2017 may resurface.
• Maiga’s departure could spur realignments among Muslim leaders, some of whom have opposed Keita but appear sympathetic to Cisse.