Mali names new PM after ethnic massacre

Malian President Boubacar Keita named Boubou Cisse as prime minister on Monday, tasking him with forming a broad government to stem bloodshed.

Ethnic violence has claimed 600 lives since March 2018, with 160 people massacred in a single day last month.

Cisse replaces Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga, who resigned over the March 23 killings close to the country's border with Burkina Faso.

President Keita was said to have met representatives of the ruling party and opposition to consider the "the constitution of a broad government."

Keita's office said in a statement that the government would embark on a national process of reconstruction.

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Maiga had been criticized for failing to clamp down on ethnic unrest, particularly in the case of the nomadic Fulani people and the ethnic Dogon group of herders, who rely on hunting and farming.

Members of a Dogon militia are suspected of carrying out last month's killings in the village of Ogossagou. 

Islamist insurgents, who captured half the country in 2012 before an intervention by the French military, have been capitalizing on communal conflicts to extend their reach and recruit new members.

rc/aw (AFP, AP, Reuters)

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