Crisis Chronology

MALI

11/15/2023

Government says it has recaptured the town of Kidal from Tuareg separatists.

10/31/2023

Tuareg rebels take over a town in the north that was evacuated by the UN peacekeeping force MINUSMA.

09/25/2023

Government says presidential election scheduled for 2/4/24 and 2/8/24 will be “slightly postponed due to technical reasons” related to the new constitution and new electoral procedures. New dates to be announced.

09/16/2023

Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso sign a security pact promising to come to the aid of each other in case of any rebellion or external aggression. All are currently ruled by military juntas and menaced by extremist militants in the Sahel.

06/18/2023

Referendum on constitutional changes proposed by the junta. It affirms support for human rights and strengthens the presidency. The president will be elected for five years and may only be re-elected once. The president appoints the prime minister and may fire the PM at will. The president sets policy and the government is responsible to the president, rather than to the legislature or the people.

05/12/2023

Constant power outages afflicting business and everyday life.

02/28/2023

Coup leader Goita receives “final” draft of new constitution. A referendum was announced for 3/19, but there is increasing suspicion that it will not be held.

02/05/2023

Interim government expels head of UN peacekeeping mission, saying that he appointed biased observers to report to the UN Security Council.

11/23/2022

Germany will draw down its troops in the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali.

11/14/2022

UK announces that it will withdraw its troops from Mali, citing “political instability” and the alleged relationship between the junta leaders and the Russian Wagner Group mercenaries.

11/02/2022

Ivory Coast says it will not replace its soldiers in the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali.

10/17/2022

Islamic State in the Greater Sahara seizes town of Ansongo in eastern Mali, killing hundreds and forcing thousands to flee.

09/22/2022

ECOWAS to impose sanctions on members of the Mali junta.

09/16/2022

Some areas continue to be controlled by militias of the Coordination of Azawad Movements. Long after the peace agreement was signed, it has not been universally implemented.

08/18/2022

Mali Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop accuses France of arming jihadist groups in Mali. France denies this.

08/12/2022

Germany suspends its military reconnaissance and transport operations in Mali after one of their planes is denied departure.

07/22/2022

Attack on a military base within ten miles of Bamako.

07/21/2022

Coordinated attacks on a military camp, other posts, and other personnel by militants.

07/04/2022

ECOWAS lifts sanctions on Mali.

06/20/2022

Islamists kill more than 130 in Mopti region in central Mali.

06/07/2022

Military junta issues a decree that the transition to civilian rule will be completed by March 26, 2024.

05/17/2022

Junta says it foiled a coup attempt on May 11 led by army officers.

05/14/2022

Demonstrations in favor of the junta.

05/13/2022

Maliko, an organization of civic groups that is close to the ruling junta brings a suit against French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian for “damage to public property and other offenses,” and a judge orders Le Drian to appear.

05/03/2022

At Mali’s request, Togo’s President Gnassingbé agrees to mediate with the AU, which has demanded a shorter transition period than the junta has offered.

05/02/2022

Junta announces that it is ending defense agreements with France, accusing that country of violations of the agreements.

04/08/2022

Russia blocks a UN Security Council request for an investigation into the Moura massacre in Mali. The Wagner Group has been suspected of being involved in the killings. There are widespread reports of indiscriminate killings of hundreds by white soldiers in Mali, believed to be from the Wagner group that returns millions of dollars to Russia.

04/04/2022

Reports of hundreds killed by Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group. Both Mali and Russia have denied the presence of the group in Mali. 4

03/20/2022

Ecowas negotiator Goodluck Johnathan leaves Mali without an agreement about the duration of a transition to a civilian government and open elections.

02/19/2022

Mali military reports clashes with “unidentified armed men” in which soldiers and attackers are killed, in the region on the border with Burkina Faso and Niger.

02/17/2022

French troops leaving Mali will be stationed in Niger.

02/14/2022

French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Ledrian says that French troops will leave Mali but remain fighting extremists in the Sahel. There have been persistent frictions between France and Mali. However, how the fight against extremists in the Sahel will be prosecuted is uncertain. A Russian proxy of mercenaries, the Wagner Group, has become very active in the region, fighting extremists for governments, but also in one case at least, destabilizing the government. One observer theorizes that Russia is attempting to gain de facto control of the region so that it can force immigrants out of the Sahel and therefore into Europe. A significant migration could destabilize European governments.

01/09/2022

ECOWAS imposes sanctions on Mali and its members close their borders with Mali due to delay in election. It calls for elections to be held in 2/22.

01/02/2022

Opposition coalition National Committee for the Salvation of the People rejects junta’s extension of the transition period.

01/01/2022

Transitional government proposes a maximum five-year transition to civilian government to ECOWAS.

01/01/2022

US removes Ethiopia, Guinea, and Mali from duty-free trade program over those countries alleged human rights abuses.

12/14/2021

French troops leaves Timbuktu, the last of the French miltary bases in northern Mali. The troops were first deployed in 2/13 by then French president François Hollande.

11/11/2021

Mali foreign minister says the government may ask Russia for help because the “very existence of the Malian state is under threat.”

11/08/2021

ECOWAS imposes sanctions on coup leaders in Mali and Guinea.

10/28/2021

Government arrests Issa Kaou N'Djim, a vice president of the country's interim parliament, for making "subversive remarks" on social media. Although a supporter of Mali's army strongman Assimi Goita, N’Djim has criticized Interim Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga.

10/19/2021

Government asks main Islamic body, the High Islamic Council (HCI), to open negotiations with the leaders of the al Qaeda-linked Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) to end the fighting. France, which has been fighting the extremist in Africa, objects to these negotiations and says it will not conduct joint operations with any country that does so.

09/27/2021

Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga says that elections scheduled for 2/27/22 could be delayed if the vote does not seem to be secure.

08/26/2021

Former prime minister Boubeye Maiga is arrested for his role in the purchase of a presidential plane during the rule of deposed President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

07/20/2021

Göita survives assassination attempt during Eid prayer.

05/31/2021

ECOWAS suspends Mali over the second coup.

05/29/2021

Constitutional Court names Goita president.

05/27/2021

Coup leader assumes presidency

Goita names himself president after N’Daw and Ouane are released.

05/26/2021

Interim president Bh N’Daw and prime minister Ouane resign their positions. They are subsequently taken into custody. Discussions about a new interim government are being held.

05/25/2021

Coup leader and interim vice-president Assimi Goita resumes control, saying that the previous administration had not consulted him on changes to the government. He says that elections will be held next year as planned.

05/24/2021

Military ousts transitional government

Coup leader and interim vice-president Assimi Goita resumes control, saying that the previous administration had not consulted him on changes to the government. He says that elections will be held next year as planned.

01/27/2021

The junta that took control of the government has been formally dissolved.

12/05/2020

Interim legislature elects Malick Diaw as its president.

12/04/2020

Transitional national council appoints parliament members.

12/01/2020

Peacekeeping initiative continuing relatively successful suppression of violence in the north.

10/25/2020

Keita returns, improved after treatment in the UAE.

10/08/2020

Cissé and others captured during the coup are released.

10/06/2020

ECOWAS lifts sanctions on Mali.

10/06/2020

Islamists release opposition leader Soumaïla Cissé after government releases some Islamist prisoners.

10/02/2020

ECOWAS lifts sanctions on Mali after junta agrees that a civilian can become vice-president in a transition government.

09/22/2020

Interim president appointed

Junta names Ba N’Daou, former minister of defense, to be interim president. The head of the National Committee for the Salvation of the People, Colonel Assimi Goïta, is named transitional vice-president.

09/13/2020

Junta leaders announced that there will be an eighteen-month transition to a civilian government. An interim president will be named, either a military officer or a civilian.

09/11/2020

Discussion of two-year transition civilian government proposed by junta-appointed council. The proposal would give the military a strong hand in the government, including the power to appoint the president, who would appoint the prime minister. An army officer would preside over a 51-member legislative body called the “transitional council.” Opposition rejects the plan.

09/10/2020

Junta begins talks with political parties, unions, and NGOs as it is under increasing pressure to return the country to civilian rule.

09/08/2020

ECOWAS demands that military junta appoint civilian transitional president and prime minister with a one-year term by 9/15.

08/30/2020

The June 5 Opposition Movement proposes a transition back to civilian power of 18 to 24 months to the military coup leaders who ousted him.

08/28/2020

ECOWAS calls for 12-month transition to civilian rule. Former Prime Minister Cissé and President of the National Assembly Moussa Timbine are released.

08/27/2020

Former President Keita is released.

08/24/2020

Talks between ECOWAS and coup leaders about how to proceed with elections end without an agreement. Internationally, the coup has been widely condemned, but Malians are peacefully accepting the change of government.

08/20/2020

Col. Assimi Goita is named head of the junta. Choguel Maiga, a leader of the opposition coalition June 5 Movement - Rally of Patriotic Forces, known as M5-RFP, says his group support the coup. ECOWAR calls for Keita’s reinstatement. UN denounces the coup.

08/19/2020

Soldiers, calling their group the National Committee for the Salvation of the People, say that new elections will be held within a “reasonable” period.

08/18/2020

Keita deposed in army coup

Keita and Cissé are both arrested by army officers in a coup. Keita resigns and says the government will also resign.

08/11/2020

Protests resume.

07/29/2020

Prime Minister Boubou Cissé calls on the opposition to reconsider its rejection of the ECOWAS recommendation of a unity government.

07/21/2020

To mediate the crisis between Keita and the opposition, Senegal’s Macky Sall, Ivory Coast’s Alassane Ouattara, Niger’s Mahamadou Issoufou and Ghana’s Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will go to Mali.

07/20/2020

ECOWAS mediators propose a unity government, but the opposition rejects it.

07/15/2020

Former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan goes to Mali to mediate between Keita and the opposition.

07/12/2020

Offices of Keita’s RPM are ransacked by protestors.

07/11/2020

Government urges dialogue with opposition.

07/11/2020

Keita suspends the constitutional court to calm civil unrest. The court had overturned the election results. He says he will implement the recommendations of ECOWAS.

07/10/2020

Large protests by the June 5, or M5, movement against the Keita government. Police fire tear gas and open fire on protestors who occupy the parliament building and state broadcaster.

06/19/2020

Large protest calling for Keita to resign in Bamako, due to the poor response of the military to jihadist attacks, corruption, and the kidnapping of Cissé.

06/16/2020

Keita says he will hold talks with the opposition about a unity government and take steps toward reforming the constitutional court and the parliament. Attacks by jihadists have spread to the center of the country and the economic stagnation, poor public services and perception of government corruption has spawned a protest movement called the June 5 movement, after the date of a large protest in Bamako.

04/19/2020

Second round of legislative elections, despite extremely low turnout in first round due to fears about COVID-19 pandemic. Mali has about 170 cases and 13 deaths. The opposition has called for the elections to be delayed, but Pres Keita says the national dialogue underscored the necessity for the elections. They were previous delayed in 2018 due to fears of violence.

03/29/2020

Elections for legislature. Turnout is very low, due to threats of violence and COVID-19 pandemic.

03/26/2020

Union for Republic and Democracy (URD) confirms that Cisse and several others are missing and believed to have been kidnapped. They were traveling in a region where terrorists often attack.

03/25/2020

Mali confirms its first case of COVID-19.

02/14/2020

Government troops including former rebels reenter former Azawad rebel stronghold of Kidal for the first time in six years.

01/28/2020

Czech Republic deploys troops to the Sahel, as approved by Mali, Chad, Mali, and Niger.

11/18/2019

Attack by unidentified group kills 24 soldiers in the northeast.

11/05/2019

French forces in Mali confirm the killing of Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), a militant group linked to the Islamic State.

11/01/2019

More than fifty soldiers are killed in an attack in northern Mali by the Islamic State.

10/27/2019

One of the signatories to the 2015 peace agreement, the High Council for Azawar Unity (HCAU) calls for all other groups supporting more autonomy for the north to merge into a single political movement. (Azawad is their name for the northern region in Mali.) The HCUA is one of the members of the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA, formerly a Tuareg-dominated rebellion) with the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and the Arab Azawad Movement (MAA).

10/01/2019

Attacks on two military camps by jihadists kill forty. One group is called Ansarul Islam.

09/24/2019

Moussa Ag Acharatoumane, leader of the Movement for the Salvation of Azawad (MSA), launches a peacekeeping initiative in the north.

09/14/2019

ECOWAS countries pledge $1 billion to fight jihadi violence in the Sahel.

09/14/2019

ECOWAS holds an Extraordinary Meeting to consider response to the terrorist attacks in the Sahel region.

09/10/2019

Hundreds of thousands of Burkinabe have been forced from their homes by jihadist attacks, including more than a hundred attacks on health centers. The government complains that aid promised by G7 countries has not arrived. Northern Mali, not under government control, is a haven for jihadis, and for the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, a separatist group.

04/23/2019

Cisse appointed prime minster

Keita appoints finance minister Boubou Cisse to be prime minister.

04/18/2019

Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubèye Maïga and his government resign due to criticism about security in the country. Though no formal reason was given, there were efforts to hold a no-confidence vote in the government.

12/12/2018

Attacks in northern Mali kill dozens of Tuaregs.

10/23/2018

Four opposition parties form The Convergence of Patriotic Forces to protest any postponement of elections due in 11/18 and 12/18. The coalition comprises the Party for Solidarity and African Integration, Yelema, the Convergence for Mali Development, and the Platform for Change.

10/12/2018

Judges, on strike since 8/18 over pay and working conditions, call for the resignation of Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubèye Maïga.

09/17/2018

UN says that situation in the central part of Mali and in Menaka are deteriorating as extremist groups mount attacks.

09/17/2018

UN says that situation in the central part of Mali and in Menaka are deteriorating as extremist groups mount attacks.

09/14/2018

Elections delayed until 11/25.

09/06/2018

Final results of voting show that only 27% of registered voters went to the polls, down from 43% in the first round. The scant turnout is at least in part due to fears about violence at polling places

08/20/2018

Keïta’s election win confirmed by constitutional court.

08/15/2018

Keïta re-elected

Keïta is announced to be the winner of the presidential election with 67% of the vote to 32% for Cissé. Turnout is reported to be 34%, down even from the general vote.

08/12/2018

Voting in presidential run-off. There is heavy security, but the opposition charges fraud in voting.

08/09/2018

Third- and fourth-place finishers in Mali election say they will support neither Cissé nor Keïta for president.

07/31/2018

Both Cissé and the candidate of the Democratic Alliance for Peace, gold magnate Aliou Diallo, claim to have come in second and forced a run-off in Mali election. Keïta has declared victory.

07/29/2018

Voting for president. Incumbent Boubacar Keïta is expected to be reelected, despite dissatisfactions with this rule. He has not moved far with the 2015 peace accord process that envisioned greater independence for the north. His main opponent is Soumaïla Cissé, former government official and presidential candidate, who will benefit from general dissatisfaction with Keïta. There is violence in some areas that disrupts voting.

07/24/2018

Opposition calls for boycott of voting on 7/29/18, as government says it is deploying observers.

06/08/2018

Large, peaceful protest against Keita is left alone by police.

11/27/2017

Mali postpones local elections, to make them more “inclusive,” government says. More local autonomy was a key part of peace agreement for rebel groups from the north.

07/02/2017

France, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger form an anti-jihadist military alliance called the G5.