Mali’s former president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has died.
This information was confirmed by several members of his family and entourage.
He was elected president of Mali in September 2013. However, he was overthrown by the military in August 2020.
The cause of death was not specified.
In the weeks before the 2020 coup, he had been struggling with protests fuelled by his handling of a jihadist insurgency and failure to turn around Mali’s floundering economy.
Snail-paced political reforms, decrepit public services and schools, and a widely shared perception of government corruption also fed anti-Keita sentiment, driving tens of thousands of protesters into the streets.
Keita was forced out of office on August 18, 2020 by young military officers who staged an uprising at a base near Bamako before heading into the city, where they seized Keita and other leaders.
Under pressure from the West African bloc ECOWAS, the junta that emerged from the rebellion released Keita on August 27 and returned him to his residence in Bamako, under surveillance.
He suffered a mini-stroke the following month, and was sent to United Arab Emirates for treatment.
