Mali after Live Aid

Mali is the second largest country in West Africa, it is landlocked and nearly one third of it forms part of the Sahara desert. The fact that it is landlocked coupled with regular droughts due to the climate as well as having experienced 23 years of military dictatorship, means that Mali remains economically underdeveloped.

As of 2012, the country is in a hugely unstable and volatile situation as the government is deposed in a military coup and the state, together with French troops, fights to regain control of the north of the country from Islamist rebels.

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Time Line

• 1960 Mali gains independence, Modibo Keita becomes president. The country is made a one-party socialist state.

• 1968 Keita is deposed in coup led by Lieutenant Moussa Traore.

• 1979 The new constitution allows for elections; Traore is immediately re-elected president.

• 1987 SOS Children opens its first Children’s Village in Mali, Sanankoroba (Bamako).

• 1991 Traore is himself deposed in coup. He is replaced by transitional committee.

• 1992 In Mali’s first democratic multiparty elections, Alpha Konare wins to become president.

  

• 1996 SOS Children opens Children’s Village Socoura (Mopti), which spearheads a local initiative to combat malaria in the district.

• 2002 (April) Amadou Toumani Toure elected president in an election that is criticised as fraudulent.

• 2002 (September) France says it will cancel 40% of debts owed to it by Mali, amounting to some 80m euros ($79m, £51m).

• 2002 (October) Without any explanation to its people, the Government resigns. This is followed by the announcement that a new government of “national unity" is to be formed.

• 2004 (April) Prime Minister Mohamed Ag Amani resigns, to be replaced by Ousmane Issoufi Maiga.

• 2004 (September) Severe locust plague cuts the cereal harvest by up to 45%. SOS Children’s Village Socoura (Mopti) coordinates a small relief programme as well as establishing the longer term Family Strengthening Programme in the area.

• 2005 The World Food Programme warns that there are severe food shortages thanks to the drought and locust infestations of 2004.

• 2006 The government signs a peace agreement with Tuareg rebels who want greater autonomy for their northern desert region.

• 2007 President Toure wins a second five-year term in elections.

• 2009 (February) The government announces that its army is in control of all the most active bases of the Tuareg rebel group. Subsequently, 700 rebels surrender their weapons, it appears that the peace process is back on track.

• 2009 (May) Algeria starts sending military equipment to Mali in order to prepare for a joint operation against Islamic militants linked to al-Qaeda. SOS Children’s Village Kita opens including an SOS Nursery, School and Social Centre providing a Family Strengthening Programme.

• 2010 Maternal death rate stands at a high 540 deaths per 100,000 live births, placing Mali 16th in the world on this measure. 64% of Malians have access to an improved drinking water source.
  

• 2012 (March) Military officers depose President Toure before the April presidential elections. They argue that he has failed to deal effectively with the Tuareg rebellion. In response, the African Union suspends Mali.

• 2012 (April) Tuareg rebels seize control of northern Mali and declare independence. The military gives power to a civilian interim government which is led by President Traore.

• 2012 (May) The military reasserts its control following what appears to have been a coup attempt by supporters of ousted President Toure. Mr Traore is beaten unconscious by the former’s supporters unconscious. Worryingly, the Tuareg MNLA and Islamist Ansar Dine rebel groups join forces, declaring northern Mali an Islamic state. Ansar Dine imposes Islamic law in Timbuktu. Al-Qaeda in North Africa welcomes and supports the deal.

• 2012 (June-July) Ansar Dine and al-Qaeda in North Africa renegade on the deal with the MNLA and capture the main northern cities of Timbuktu, Kidal and Gao.

• 2012 (August ) Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra forms a new ‘national unity’ government to satisfy regional demands for civilian not military rule.

• 2012 (Autumn-Winter) Northern Islamist rebels consolidate the gains they have made in the north, seizing the strategically important town of Douentza. They begin to cross into central Mali.

• 2012 (November) TheWest African regional group, Ecowas, agrees to a military expedition to recapture the north. This plan receives UN and African Union backing.

• 2012 (December) Prime Minister Diarra resigns under pressure from the military who oppose the plans for coordinated military intervention by external forces. President Traore appoints Django Sissoko as his successor. The UN and US threaten sanctions.

• 2013 (January) Islamist fighters capture the central town of Konna and it becomes apparent that they want to march on the capital. President Traore asks France for help. French troops respond by swiftly re-capturing Gao and Timbuktu and at the end of the month enter Kidal.

• 2013 (April) France starts withdrawing its troops, a regional African force takes over helping the Malian army.

• 2013 (May) $4bn is pledged to help Mali at an international conference.

• 2013 (June) The Malian government signs a peace agreement with the Tuareg rebels. It is now possible to hold elections. The rebels agree to surrender the town of Kidal that they captured after French troops forced out Islamists in January.

• 2013 (July-August) Ibrahim Boubacar Keita wins the presidential election. The infant mortality rate is recorded as being 106.49 deaths per 1000 live births. This is incredibly high and means that Mali is second worst in the world on this measure.