Mali’s Former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who died less than 18 months after being deposed in a coup, was honoured by Mali’s military administration on Friday, as the junta that overthrew him confronts deepening international isolation over election delays.
Malian Prime Minister Choguel Kokala Maiga, a civilian leader in the administration still run by the man behind the August 2020 coup, Col. Assimi Goita, was among those who attended Keita’s state-like funeral.
New regional sanctions preventing flights to Mali were believed to limit the number of heads of state who could attend the funeral. The sole foreign official announced at the ceremony was a delegate from neighbouring Guinea, which is also ruled by a military dictatorship.
Keita, who went by the initials IBK and died at the age of 76, was last seen on official television under duress after mutinous soldiers surrounding his home and fired gunfire into the air. He resigned as president, claiming that he did not wish to be kept in power by bloodshed.
According to advisers, Keita has sought medical care overseas since resigning. Mali’s military administration simply said that he died after a long illness in a statement.
Amadou Koita, who served in two cabinet positions during Keita’s presidency from 2013 to 2020, described the late leader as “a generous man who never ran out of ideas” on Friday.
“It was IBK who championed the gender equality law, allowing women to hold 30% of administrative jobs in Mali,” he stated.
Keita, 76, rose to power following a coup in 2012, winning a historic election the following year after a French-led military campaign to drive Islamic militants from control of northern Mali’s major cities.
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