Events - Mali

18 August 2020, The President of Mali, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, was ousted� Mali was facing a Jihadist insurgency.

6/2020, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was accused of abusing his political power by the M5 movement. However the Jihadists, especially Imam Mahmoud Dicko, had a strong influence within M5. Dicko had shown himself opposed to women�s rights and has stocked homophobia, exploiting the conservative nature of many Malians.

3/2020, Soumaila Case, prominent Opposition member, was kidnapped by Jihadists.

2019, Malian Prmie Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga resigned as ethnic violence rose in the country.

2018, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was re-elected President. He then declared an intention to ditch the two-term maximum rule.

2015, Islamist attack on the Radisson Blu Hotel, Bamako.

2013, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was elected President.

11/1/2013, The French army began operations against Islamic militants in northern Mali.

1/9/2012, Islamist rebels captured several �towns including �Douentza in Mali. They were later recaptured by the Malian Government with French military assistance.

6/4/2012, Islamic militants unilaterally declared the secession of northern Mali as the republic of Azawad. Europe feared a new area of Jihadism in the Sahara.

3/2012, Mutinous soldiers, angery at government mishandling of northern rebels, ousted the President, Amadou Toumani Toure.

27/3/1996, A civil war in northern Mali between the Government and the Tuareg ended.

1993, Anti-Government coup, failed.

1992, First multi-Party elections.

1991, Traore was deposed and sent to prison.

1985, Brief five-day war with Burkina Faso.

1983, Agreement for greater economic and political integration with Guinea.

1974, New Constitution made Mali a One-Party State

12/1968, Mali became a police State when Moussa Traore deposed President Modibo Keita in a military coup. He ruled harshly until 1991.

22/9/1960, Mali became independent. It became a One-Party State with Modibo Keita as President,

22 August 1960. Senegal seceded from Mali.

20/6/1960, Mali became independent from France as the federation of Mali, including Senegal.� See 22/8/1960.

17/1/1959. Senegal and French Sudan (Soudan) united to form Mali.

1898, The French destroyed the Mandinka State, led by Samori Toure. Their new colony was called French Sudan.

12 December 1893, The French advanced down the valley of the Niger from Kayes in Senegal and captured Timbuktu, capital of Mali.

Songhai Empire

1612, Indigenous rule in what was the Songhai Empire, until conquest by Morocco. Morocco made Timbuktu the capital.

13 March 1591, At the Battle of Tondibi, Moroccan forces under the Saadi Dynasty, led by Judar Pasha, defeated the Songhai Empire, despite being outnumbered at least 5 to 1. The Songhai plan to break the Moroccan line by stampeding cattle into it backfired when the cattle, panicked by the sound of Moroccan guns, turned and stampeded into the Songhai lines instead. Ishaq fled and his army was massacred.

December 1590, A 4,000-strong Moroccan army began marching south to conquer the Songhai Empire. It was suppoeted by 1,000 pack horses and 10,000 camels. Ishaq, Songhai ruler, possessed an army perhaps 40,000 strong., but he assembled it too slowly, giving him a disadvantage even against the exhausted and outnumbered Moroccans.

January 1590, The Moroccan Sultan, Al-Mansur, sent an ultimatum to Emperor Askia Ishaq II, ruler of the Songhai Empire, to submit to his rule. Ishaq sent back a load of spears and horseshoes, to signal that his horsemen would prevail. Besides, Ishaq did not believe that Morocco could send an army across the width of the Sahara. Morocco had arquebuses and cannon; the Songhai had such contempt for this technology that they threw captured Moroccan firearms in the River Niger.

1528, End of the reign of Askia Toure, Songhai Emperor from 1493.

1500, Peak of the Songhai Empire; scholarship and the arts flourished.

12 April 1493, After the death of Sonni Ali Ber, founder of the Songhai Mali Empire, in 1492, Mohammed I Askia usurped the Songhai throne after defeating Sonni Buru at the Battle of Anfao, Mali.

1464, The Songhai Empire under Sunni Ali overran large areas of the Sahel, of what is now Mali and Timbuktu. It grew to cover 540,000 square miles, running for 1,200 miles along the River Niger, south of the Sahara. Its capital was at Gao.

Ca. 1400, Empire of Mali in decline, losing dominance of the gold trade to the Songhai Empire.

1341, Sulaiman became King of Mali.

1324, Mansu Musa, King of Mali, travelled to Mecca. The splendour of his court astounded all those who visited it. He ordered the construction of a mosque in Timbuktu.

1235, Sundiata Keita became King of Mali; ruled until 1255.

1200s, The Mali Empire, by now Muslim, grew wealthy on the gold and Saharan caravan trade. It now ruled over the Upper Niger region.

1100, The city of Timbuktu was founded by Tuareg herders.

800 AD, Islam now arrived in what is now Mali.

700s, Mali was part of the Ghana Empire, until ca, 1050.

600 AD, Desert caravans now ran through Timbuktu to the Mediterranean.

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