(Bloomberg) -- Malian Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga resigned ahead of a no-confidence vote over his government’s failure to tackle a deadly rise in attacks from Islamist militants and clashes between ethnic communities.
A successor for the 64-year-old Maiga will be appointed soon and a new administration put in place, the office of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said in a statement on Thursday. Maiga took office in December 2017.
The West African nation has been engulfed in conflict since a loose alliance of ethnic Tuareg separatists and Islamist fighters with ties to Algeria and Libya seized large swathes of the north in 2012. A French military intervention succeeded in pushing back the insurgents a year later, but al-Qaeda-linked militants are now encroaching on Mali’s more densely populated central region and increasing tension between local communities.
Last month, gunmen killed at least 157 people in a village in central Mali in one of the deadliest attacks the country has experienced in years. The attack was followed by protests in the capital, Bamako, with thousands calling for the government to find a solution to the crisis or to step down.
Maiga was slated to face a so-called motion of censure on Friday. The motion was filed by the president of the parliamentary group of Keita’s ruling Rally for Mali.
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