Malian Prime Minister Choguel Maiga was put on forced rest by his doctor on Saturday after months of intense exertion, his office announced. “After 14 months of non-stop work, Prime Minister, Head of Government, Choguel Kokalla Maiga has been put on forced rest by his doctor,” his office said on its Facebook page on Saturday. “It will resume operations next week, God willing,” the statement added. An adviser cited by the Reuters news agency denied earlier media reports in Paris-based Jeune Afrique magazine that Maiga had been hospitalized after suffering a stroke. Mali’s ruling military government appointed the former opposition leader as prime minister of the transitional government it leads in June last year, following a military coup in August 2020. Maiga has been one of the government’s most outspoken voices in repeated public spats with West African neighbors and international partners who have criticized its military cooperation with Russian mercenaries and repeated election delays. ECOWAS, West Africa’s main political and economic bloc, is pressuring Mali to honor its commitment to hold presidential and parliamentary elections after a military coup in August 2020. The new leadership has promised to hold democratic elections in 2024. Maiga has repeatedly condemned France for “abandoning” Mali in its conflict against armed groups in the country, which has been at the center of a bloody 10-year campaign by armed groups in the region. Earlier on Saturday, the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali said it would resume troop rotations for the nearly 12,000-strong mission on Monday, a month after Malian authorities suspended them and accused foreign troops of entering the country without permission. He said they would continue after discussions with representatives of the mission, known as MINUSMA, on how to coordinate troop deployments. Tensions are high between Mali and the UN after 49 soldiers from Ivory Coast, including members of the special forces, were arrested by Malian authorities last month. Mali said the Ivorian soldiers did not have the proper authorization to come to Mali and accused them of being mercenaries. A MINUSMA spokesman told Reuters on Saturday that the mission and Malian authorities had agreed to a simplified rotation process and that the mission’s request to resume rotations had been accepted. Relations between Mali and troop-contributing countries remain strained. On Friday, Germany announced it was suspending the military reconnaissance mission, which provides intelligence to MINUSMA, after Malian authorities withheld a flight permit. Mali’s foreign minister denied on Twitter that the government had done so and called on Germany to adhere to the new mechanism for approving troop rotations. Western powers have repeatedly criticized Russian mercenaries working for Moscow’s controversial Wagner group deployed in Mali. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian accused the mercenaries of plundering Mali’s resources in exchange for the protection of the military government. Russia is seen by a part of the population as the most effective ally in the fight against armed groups. In February, thousands of anti-French protesters waving Russian flags and burning cardboard effigies of French President Emmanuel Macron poured into the streets of the capital Bamako to cheer the expulsion of the French ambassador. Relations between Mali and its former colony soured in January when the military government reneged on an agreement to hold elections in February and proposed staying in power until 2025. Maiga’s transitional government has said it will hold elections in 2024.
