Mali’s interim President, Assimi Goita on Tuesday July 20, survived an assassination attempt, while offering Eid al-Adha prayers at the Grand Mosque in the capital, Bamako.
Religious Affairs Minister, Mamadou Kone
told AFP that a man had "tried to kill the president with a knife"
but was apprehended. The attack happened as an imam was directing worshippers
outside the mosque for a ritual animal sacrifice.
Goita was whisked away according to an
AFP news agency journalist who also said he saw blood at the scene, though it
was not clear who had been wounded.
Later on Tuesday, Goita announced that
he was doing “very well” following the attack. In a statement broadcast on
state television channel ORTM, the interim President said;
“That’s part of being a leader, there are always malcontents.
“There are people who at any time may want to try things to cause
instability.”
Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris reporting from
Abuja, Nigeria, said on the ground reports suggested the attacker “posed as an
usher” for the mosque.
Idris said;
When Goita was passing by, he [the
attacker] lunged at him. Another report said he was stabbed in the arm, but
these are not confirmed yet.
“Right
now we’re not clear whether the attacker is a member of the armed groups that
have been operating in Mali and across the border in Burkina Faso and Niger. Or
a military officer or even a civilian who is not happy with the government.”
The attack follows months of political
turmoil in Mali, which is also battling an Islamist insurgency that has claimed
thousands of lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
In June, 38-year-old Colonel Goita was
sworn in as the transitional president after leading an internationally
condemned coup. It was the second time he had led such a coup, after a similar
putsch in August 2020.
The initial coup, orchestrated by Goita and other army officers, ousted elected president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita after weeks of mass protests over corruption and the long-running conflict.
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