Mali Interim President Goita Attacked By Armed Men
An AFP correspondent witnessed two armed men, one of whom held a knife, attack Mali’s interim president Assimi Goita in the city Bamako’s grand mosque on Tuesday.
The attack occurred during Eid al-Adha prayers, an Islamic feast.
According to the journalist, Goita has already been removed from the scene, however it is unclear whether he was injured.
A man “tried to assassinate the president with a knife,” according to Religious Affairs Minister Mamadou Kone, who was caught.
The director of the Great Mosque, Latus Toure, said an assailant went at the president but injured someone else.
The accounts were not immediately confirmed by AFP.
Mali has been fighting a jihadist insurgency that began in the country’s northwestern region in 2012 and has now spread to Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and citizens have been slain, and many more have been forced to flee their homes.
Political instability in the capital has been paralleled by the conflict.
After weeks of large protests against corruption and the long-running terrorist conflict, Colonel Goita orchestrated a coup in August, deposing elected president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
He deposed a transitional administration in May, which had been tasked with returning the country to civilian authority in February 2022.
He was named temporary president after that, but he has vowed to stick to the goal of returning to civilian rule.
AFP
