Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita announced a new government on Tuesday stocked with loyalists seen as helping him prepare for a re-election bid next year. The government, announced in a presidential decree, includes 10 new ministers and 25 holdovers from the previous cabinet. Tieman Hubert Coulibaly, a former defence minister and close Keita ally, was handed the crucial post of minister of territorial administration, charged with organising presidential and parliamentary elections late next year. The shakeup follows Keita’s nomination at the weekend of Adboulaye Idrissa Maiga, another close ally and the defence minister in the previous government, as prime minister. Tiena Coulibaly, ambassador to the United States, was named the new defence minister.

Source: The North Africa Journal April 11, 2017 19:52 UTC