The singer Salif Keïta has been appointed as an adviser to the head of the junta, Colonel Assimi Goïta, act a decree published Monday, August 14. The artist is part of a list of five people appointed “special advisers” to the Malian head of state. The text does not detail the role of Salif Keïta.
A great name in Afropop and world music, Salif Keïta, 73, is also distinguished by his political commitment and, since the advent of the colonels following a putsch in 2020, by his support for the junta.
He was appointed a week after the announcement of his resignation from an assembly set up by the military and serving as a legislative body.
“Undisputed Friend of the Military”
“I will always remain the undisputed friend of the military of my country,” he said in his resignation letter read from the podium. Mr. Keïta has publicly expressed his support for the authorities’ discourse of sovereignty. He openly demanded a few months ago the departure of the mission of UN peacekeepers (Minusma), since officially announced by the United Nations Security Council.
Mali has been plagued since 2012 by jihadist expansion and a deep multidimensional crisis. The violence that started in the north spread to the center of the country as well as to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.
