Mali’s former prime minister dies in detention: Media

By James Tasamba

KIGALI, Rwanda (AA) - Mali’s former Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga died in detention on Monday, local media reported. He was 68.

Maiga, the president of the Alliance for Solidarity in Mali–Convergence of Patriotic Forces party, (ASMA-CFP) died on Monday morning at a private clinic in Mali’s capital Bamako, where he had been admitted for treatment, according to reports.

The ex-premier, who served under ex-President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, was imprisoned last year after allegedly being implicated in a $16.7 million embezzlement case.

Last August, Maiga was detained after being charged with “forgery, use of forgery and favoritism” following an investigation into the purchase of military equipment and the acquisition of a presidential plane in 2014 when he served as a defense minister.

He was believed to have been a close ally of Keita, who was overthrown by Col. Assimi Goita in August 2020.

Maiga was appointed Keita's prime minister in 2017 but resigned in April 2019 following a massacre in the central region of the country in which 160 people were killed.