Mali Names New Cabinet
Mali’s
New Prime Minister has named a new cabinet for his government,
replacing the Defence Minister as the army faces a renewed
revolt by Tuareg nomads in the north. A Tuareg was also
appointed to the cabinet.
Premier Modibo Sidibe named by President Amadou Toumani Toure
last week, after a parliamentary election in July, removed all
the opposition representatives from the previous government of
national unity.
Most ministers were dismissed in the reshuffle, broader than
expected and having all the opposition members from ex-premier
Ousmane Issoufi Maiga's government replaced by Toure loyalists.
Key ministers close to Toure retained the strategic territorial
administration, internal security, finance and foreign
ministries.
Defence Minister Mamadou Clazie Cissouma was replaced by Natie
Plea, who was sports minister in the outgoing government and
previously served as regional governor of the capital, Bamako.
Cissouma's final weeks as Defence minister were blighted by a
revolt by Tuareg nomads who have abducted dozens of soldiers and
civilians in a series of raids in the Saharan north, mirroring
an 8-month-old rebellion in neighbouring Niger.
Government however recorded victory last week by dislodging
Tuareg soldiers led by dissident army officer Ibrahima Bahanga,
who had been besieging the remote northern border town of Tin-Zaouatene
since mid-September.
Sidibe also named a Tuareg, Agathane Ag Alassane, as minister of
environment and sanitation in the new cabinet.
The outgoing cabinet did not include any Tuareg, although some
have previously served in government, particularly since a 1990s
peace deal to end a previous rebellion.
The deal promised to integrate more of the light-skinned nomadic
tribesmen into an administration dominated by black Africans
from the south.
Mali was gripped by Tuareg rebellions shortly after independence
from France in the 1960s, and again in the 1990s, when Tuaregs
and other light-skinned Saharan communities revolted in
neighbouring Niger too.
BBC/MIA
