Mali’s Interim President, Assimi Goïta, has survived an attempted assassination attack.
Two armed men, including one who wielded a knife, attacked Goita on Tuesday in the Great Mosque at the capital, Bamako, during prayers for the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha.
Religious Affairs Minister, Mamadou Kone, told newsmen that a man had “tried to kill the President with a knife” but was apprehended.
Latus Tourè, Director of the Great Mosque, said: “It was after the imam’s prayer and sermon, or when the imam should go and sacrifice his sheep, that the young man tried to stab Assimi (Goïta) from behind, but (it is)another person. who was injured.”
Colonel Goita led a coup last August, ousting elected President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita after weeks of mass protests over corruption and the long-running jihadist conflict.
In May, he ousted a transitional government that had been entrusted with the task of leading the country back to civilian rule in February 2022.
Goita arrested interim President Ba Ndau and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane and took them to the Kati army base.
At the time, Goita (who was Vice-President) said he relieved the President and Prime Minister of their duties for violating the transitional charter.
Mali has been struggling to contain a jihadist insurgency that first emerged in the north of the country in 2012, and has since spread to Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
Thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes.
The conflict has also been mirrored by political instability in the capital.
