Mali Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga on Thursday resigned, along with the rest of his ministers in the government, after receiving heavy criticism over their inability to clamp down the rising unrest and a massacre that left nearly 160 people dead.
Lawmakers of the ruling and opposition parties had a submitted a no confidence motion against the government on Wednesday. Maiga has been facing a lot of flak for inaction following an upsurge of violence and protests.
Maiga's government had come under heavy fire over its handling of violence in the restive Mopti region and a massacre on March 23 in which nearly 160 people of the Fulani herding community were killed in the village of Ogossagou near the border with Burkina Faso.
Thousands of people, including religious leaders, civil society groups and organisations representing the Fulani community, protested against the increasing violence ad the gvoernment's inability to do anything to contain it.
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said he had accepted Maiga's resignation and those of his ministers.
Keita's office offered a statement that a new prime minister will be named “very soon” and a new government will be in place after “consulting with all political forces”.
Mali has been struggling to restore stability since Islamist extremists linked to al-Qaeda took control of the country's vast desert north in early 2012. A French-led military operation had driven our most of the jihadists in early 2013, but many areas in the country are still vulnerable to Islamist attacks.
