BAMAKO, July 28, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Mali’s presidency tasked a stripped-down cabinet on Monday with working to form a unity government in the crisis-stricken nation, after pressure from other West African leaders.
The statement from the president’s office said the president, in keeping with the wishes of regional bloc ECOWAS, had decided to form “a limited ministerial team whose mission is to negotiate with the concerned parties with a view to forming a government of national unity”.
Protesters have been on the streets for weeks to demand the resignation of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who is also facing an eight-year jihadist revolt and a slumping economy.
The heads of the 15-nation ECOWAS bloc earlier said they supported Keita, who has been in power since 2013, and called for a unity government that would include opposition leaders.
Addressing demands by protesters that Keita should quit, ECOWAS leaders also said the country’s democratic constitution had to be respected after anger over a disputed election.
ECOWAS envisaged “sanctions against all those who act contrary to the normalization process of the crisis”.
Keita’s spokesman Kamissa Camara said the new government would include ministries of defence, justice, security, foreign affairs, territorial administration and finance.
The ministers would serve under current Prime Minister Boubou Cisse.