Virginia Friends of Mali

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/15/world/africa/trump-shithole-africa.html?emc=edit_tnt_20180116&nlid=35302644&tntemail0=y Trump Comments, Infuriating Africans, May Set Back U.S. Interests By KIMON de GREEF and SEWELL CHAN JAN. 15, 2018 CAPE TOWN — South Africa and Nigeria have joined a chorus of nations condemning President Trump’s inflammatory remarks on immigration, as Africa experts warned that the controversy threatened to set back American interests across the world’s fastest-growing continent. Since Thursday, when several participants in a meeting with Mr. Trump said he had asked why the United States should take in migrants from “shithole countries,” including Haiti and African nations, the Trump administration has been erratic in its account of what happened. On Friday, Mr. Trump insisted on Twitter that “this was not the language used,” and on Sunday, he told reporters , “I’m not a racist.” On Monday, Mr. Trump said that a Democratic senator who attended the meet...

The president of Mali, Mr Ibrahim Boubacar KEITA (IBK), has accepted the resignation of prime minister Idrissa Maiga (meaning that he was fired!) an requested a former Minister of Defense to form the next government. Mr Soumeylou Boubeye MAIGA (SBM) is the fifth PM chosen since IBK became president in Aug-Sept 2013 (he was elected in August, sworn-in in September). Your correspondent believes this to be a good move. Idrissa was a party political operator, the campaign manager for IBK during the 2013 presidentials. SBM is a political operator of a different caliber. He was a member of the Adema party that won the first presidential and parliamentary elections back in 1992, and said to be close to both the army (he was twice Minister of Defense) and to certain militia groups in the north of Mali. SBM comes from Gao, and he knows everybody in the northern political firmament. Under the first elected president, Dr Alpha Oumar Konaré (AOK, also known to journalists as “Alpha O.K.”), SBM ...