Magharebia

Interim Malian President Dioncounda Traore on Tuesday (April 17th) named a prime minister to head a unity government that will include the military, AFP reported.

The new premier, Cheick Modibo Diarra, is a noted astrophysicist who served as Microsoft's chairman for Africa and taught mechanical and aerospace engineering in Washington DC.

He had planned to run in the aborted election this month as the candidate of the Rally for Mali's Development that he founded last year.

"We must, according to our abilities, be fully committed in order to find solutions – lasting solutions – to this problem here and to regain the totality of our country [and] its integrity," the 60-year-old Diarra said on public television.