Ousted Mali president admitted after stroke

Former Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (pictured), who has not been seen in public since his August 18 ouster in a coup, has been hospitalised after suffering a brief stroke-like attack, a doctor has said.

Keita, 75, was admitted to a private clinic in Bamako on Tuesday evening.

“According to thorough analysis, the president was victim of a transient ischaemic attack. It is an alert, but he is recovering well at the moment,” a doctor at the facility said.

A transient ischaemic attack, also called a mini-stroke, happens when the blood supply to the brain is disrupted for a few minutes, causing stroke-like symptoms such as numbness on one side of the body, vision difficulties or confusion in understanding speech.

Although the symptoms are typically short-lasting, they are often a warning sign for future strokes, experts say.

An aide to Keita and a medical source had said Keita had been admitted to the clinic for a routine checkup.

Asked how long Keita would stay, the doctor said: “It’s true, his return home was initially envisaged for today, but right now he is under observation.”

This came as the junta named newcomers to strategic positions. It named a new army chief of staff and appointed people to other key army and security posts, according to decrees published Wednesday.

General Oumar Diarra is named chief of the general staff of the armed forces in a decree dated September 1 and signed by the junta’s leader, Colonel Assimi Goita.

He replaces General Abdoulaye Coulibaly at the head of an army which has lost hundreds of men in the last few years fighting jihadists, despite the support of French, international and UN troops.

Coulibaly is still being detained by the junta along with several other high-ranking and leading political figures arrested during the August 18 coup that overthrew president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

Keïta is under house arrest, with limited access to the internet and telephone while being denied visitors, according to the former president’s entourage.

The president was ousted by young military officers who mutinied at a base near Bamako before heading into the city, where they seized Keita and other leaders.

Hours later, Keita announced on national TV that he was stepping down.