The close relative of former Prime ministerof Africa ”Soumeylou Boubèye Maïga” told the media that he died on Monday, March 22, 2022, in the capital Bamako.
Maiga, who served the nation as a prime minister for two years, from 2017 to 2019, was 67.
He was an influential figure for the whole of Africa, especially in their security policy in Mali and also in the Sahel region. He was in detention since August 2021, when a military junta took over the country, and he even requested medical treatment, but the military of the West African country refused to give him treatment.
According to the close relative of Miaga, Maiga’s state of health declined suddenly a few days ago, and approval of his treatment came from Mali, and it was considered. Still, it did not happen on time, and he was also not authorized to speak to the press on his condition, and he died in the clinic only.
Several other close relations of him confirmed the news of his death. Many heads of state in West Africa have confirmed the account as well.
As per the tweet of Niger President Mohamed Bazoum, the refusal of overseas medical care for Maiga was similar to an assassination.
Furthermore, he added in his tweet, “I just got to know about the death of Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga, former Prime Minister of Mali. His death in prison recalls that of President Modibo Keita in 1977. I thought that such assassinations belonged to another era. My condolences to his family and friends.”
The president of the political party Alliance for Solidarity in Mali – Intersection of Patriotic Forces ASMA-CFP, Maiga was a journalist by training. In the 1990s, he was assigned as the director of intelligence services by President Alpha Oumar Konaré. Critics accused him of being behind the creation of the ethnic Gandakoy militia that is accused of abuses against civilians of the Tuareg ethnic minority in northern Mali.
Then, he went on to occupy several posts of Cabinet, such as foreign Affairs minister in 2011 under President Amadou Toumani Toure, as well as the defence minister under President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita’ before serving as a Prime Minister for two years. However, he resigned from his post in 2021 after the killings of more than 160 Fulani civilians and protested against the state for continued insecurity.
Keita was destroyed in a coup by a military putsch in August 2020. Maiga was later arrested in Bamako in 2021 on allegations of fraud related to his time as minister of defence between 2013 and 2014.
