Mali's cabinet reshuffle

Mali has a new cabinet.

Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita presented new members of his cabinet on Thursday.

In it, one appointment stands out.That of the member of Mali’s rebel movement, the Coordination of the Movement of Azawad (CMA).

Nina Walett Intallou is an activist within the Tuareg led rebel movement and previously the vice president of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, that had been created two years ago, to reconcile the Malian people.

The cabinet reshuffle is being viewed as part of president Keita’s strategy to quell escalating jihadist attacks in the country. Mali has in the recent past witnessed incidents of terror and a peace deal signed ove a year ago has done little to stabilise the country.

Though most ministers have retained their previous posts, president Keita also named two new female cabinet members which brings the total number of females in the cabinet to 8 out 34 ministers.

The land locked west African nation has been struggling to turn the page on an Islamist incursion in the nothern part of the country since 2012, that triggered a French military intervention to pull it from the brink of collapse.