Mali PM and ministers resign to allow government reshuffle

Malian Prime Minister Abdoulaye Idrissa Maiga and his government resigned on Friday, the president’s office said, without giving a reason.

Maiga is widely expected either to serve as President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita’s campaign director for next year’s presidential election or to run in Keita’s place.

The president will soon name a new government, his office said in the statement. It will be the fifth to serve under Keita since his election in 2013.

Usually fewer than half the ministers appointed to a new government have served in the previous cabinet.

Keita’s presidency has been dominated by security challenges posed by Islamist militants in northern and central Mali, who have regrouped since a French military intervention in 2013 to wage regular attacks on troops, U.N. peacekeepers and civilians.