ANALYSIS: Technically, Colonel Assimi Goïta does not have to hold elections in Mali any time soon. But he has a tactical incentive to do so now: battlefield difficulties are hollowing out his promise to secure the country, writes [@beverly_ochieng](

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Beverly Ochieng (@beverly_ochieng@mastodon.social)

149 Posts, 17 Following, 797 Followers · Obnoxious literary fiction reader | mostly watching Sahel coups, stalking the Wagner Group and analysing ...

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Goïta appears ready to give elections a go

But a day at the ballot boxes won’t necessarily make the military just some junta that you used to know.

The last tim Cameroonian president Paul Biya was seen in public anywhere in the world was on 8 September in Beijing, after attending the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. He was conspicuously absent from the UN General Assembly meeting in the US weeks later, and from the Francophonie summit in Paris this month.

Cameroon’s president is very old and missing in action

What is going to happen when Paul Biya dies?