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Mali: Prime Minister Cheikh Modibo Diarra resigns
Immediate Past Mali Prime Minister Cheikh Modibo Diarra
The prime minister of Mali Cheikh Modibo Diarra has resigned.
Diarra, went on TV at 4 a.m. to announce his resignation.
“Our country is living through a period of crisis. Men and women who are worried about the future of our nation are hoping for peace,” he said. “It’s for this reason that I, Cheikh Modibo Diarra, am resigning along with my entire government on this day, Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012. I apologize before the entire population of Mali.”
Diarra has been prime minister of an interim government since April this year after the military officially handed power back to civilians.
The 60-year-old astrophysicist has backed plans to send a West African intervention force into the northern half of Mali which was seized after the coup by Islamists who have since imposed a strict version of Islamic law.
The potential political crisis resulting from Diarra’s resignation may further complicate plans by the ECOWAS to send in an intervention force to help reclaim the north.