Death of former Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta

Former Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita died Sunday in Bamako at the age of 76, a year and a half after being overthrown by the military, which is now defying part of the international community.

Begun in 2013, the presidency of IBK- as he was commonly called – largely coincided with the turmoil in which Mali has been caught since the previous year.

Mr. Keïta was overthrown in August 2020 by the military, which, after a second coup in May 2021, is using the ills accumulated during the IBK era to plan to continue ruling the country for several more years.

“President IBK died this morning at 9:00 am (GMT and local time) at his home” in the capital, where he was living in seclusion, away from public life, said a family member.

This information was confirmed by several members of his family and his entourage. The cause of death was not specified.

The death occurred “following a long illness,” the Malian transitional government, led by Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maïga, who was minister in IBK’s cabinet, before becoming his opponent, said simply in a statement.

The transitional government has, in this text signed by the Minister of Territorial Administration, Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga, saluted “the memory of the illustrious departed” and announced that information on the funeral ceremony “will be the subject of a later communiqué”.

The head of Malian diplomacy Abdoulaye Diop said he was “saddened to learn of the death of former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita” and bowed, in a message on Twitter, “with great emotion before his memory.”

The president of neighboring Senegal, Macky Sall, said on Twitter that he was “saddened to learn of the death” of Mr. Keita. The former president of Niger Mahamadou Issoufou, comrade of the deceased in the Socialist International, praised “a learned man, a great patriot and a pan-Africanist.”