Early Tuesday morning, during the Muslim rite of Eid al-Adha, the feast of the Sacrifice, at the Grand Mosque of Bamako, two people attempted to stab the president of the Mali transition, Colonel Assimi Goïta.
The attempted stabbing occurred after the prayer and as the imam was walking towards the mosque’s exit to slit the sheep.
According to AFP, Goïta was then hauled away and did not appear to have been touched.
“Yes, absolutely,” his security services said when questioned by AFP if the crime was an “assassination attempt” on the president. “We are conducting the investigation. At least one person tried to attack him with a knife at the Grand Mosque in Bamako today”, the same witness went on to state that the president is out of harm’s way.
Mamadou Kone, the Minister of Religious Affairs, who was there at the event, told AFP that in the Great Mosque of Bamako, a man tried to kill the transition President with a knife.
He emphasized, however, that he was well controlled before doing his crime.
“It was after the prayer and the sermon of the imam, when the imam should normally go to immolate his sheep, that the young man tried to stab Assimi (Goïta) from behind, but it was another person who got injured, the great mosque’s manager”, Latus Tourè verified the news to AFP.
In less than a year, Mali has experienced two state coups. Both, in August and May, which were headed by the same army colonels, led by Colonel Assimi Goïta, who has since become president of the transition.
A former chief of a special forces battalion, he has never gone anywhere for nine months without his men, armed with assorted guns and wearing hoods.
Colonel Gota and the new government, which was formed by the junta, have promised to uphold their word and give over power to civilians after the elections on February 27, 2022.
N.W. Catnella