Background
He was born in 1925 at Sokolo, 250 miles to the NE of Bamako on the road to Timbuctu.
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Sori COULIBALY
Edit ProfileCareer
He became in 1953 secretary-general of the Civil Servants’ Trade Union in former French West Africa. After a brief spell of diplomatic training in 1960 at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he was appointed in October head of the political department of the Malian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Promoted in August 1961 to Secretary-General at the same ministry, he left Bamako in March 1962, to become Mali’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations.
In 1964 he led a sub-committee of five members to London for talks with the British government on the Rhodesian situation. After having met both Duncan Sandys, then Commonwealth Relations and Colonial Secretary, and two Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) officials, he reported to the UN Special Committee of 24 that the situation in Southern Rhodesia should be considered "a matter of great urgency”.
He left the United Nations in February 1966 to become Ambassador to the USSR and returned to Mali seven months later to take up the post of Technical Adviser to the Presidency.
After the military coup in November 1968, he was promoted to ministerial rank as Minister Delegate to the CMLN, becoming a very active link between the cabinet and the CMLN.
In September 1969 he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, but one year later he returned to his previous post of Minister Delegate to the CMI-N at the same time that he became Minister of Labour and Public Service.
Personality
A diplomat of great talent, despite his lack of formal training, he rose to become one of the most respected African representatives at the United Nations (1962-6). His attacks on the United Kingdom’s handling of the Rhodesian problem reflected pungently the African nations’ concern for a situation which they can do very little to influence. He acts as an important link between the civilian cabinet and the military government which holds the real power in its hands.
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Born
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Nationality
Malian