{"id":33683,"date":"2026-05-04T18:02:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T16:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=33683"},"modified":"2026-05-04T18:02:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T16:02:39","slug":"mali-military-leader-goita-takes-over-as-defence-minister","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/mali-military-leader-goita-takes-over-as-defence-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"Mali military leader Goita takes over as Defence Minister"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mali\u2019s military leader Assimi Goita has assumed the role of Defence Minister following a deadly attack that killed his predecessor.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The assault on April 25 was carried out by al-Qaeda-linked militants and Tuareg separatists, further deepening security concerns in the country.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The announcement was made on state television, marking a major shift in Mali\u2019s leadership structure as it battles rising militant violence and instability.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Goita now holds both the Head of State and Defence portfolio roles.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Reuters\/ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":33684,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-33683","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Mali\u2019s military leader Assimi Goita has assumed the role of Defence Minister","published_date":"2026-05-04 17:25:13","news_description":"Mali\u2019s military leader Assimi Goita has assumed the role of Defence Minister","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33688,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33683\/revisions\/33688"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=33683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}