Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali is the eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over 1,241,238 square kilometres (479,245 sq mi). The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east by Niger, to the northwest by Mauritania, to the south by Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, and to the west by Guinea and Senegal. The population of Mali is 21.9 million, 67% of which was estimated to be under the age of 25 in 2017. Its capital and largest city is Bamako. The country has 13 official languages, of which Bambara is the most commonly spoken.
Mali is located in Africa. The history of the territory of modern Mali may be divided into:
Moctar Ouane is a Malian diplomat and politician who served as the acting Prime Minister of Mali from 27 September 2020 to 24 May 2021, between the 2020 Malian coup d'état and the 2021 Malian coup d'état. He also previously served in the government of Mali as Minister of Foreign Affairs from May 2004 to April 2011.
Choguel Kokalla Maïga is a Malian politician and President of the Patriotic Movement for Renewal, a political party in Mali, and current Prime Minister of the Transition. He served in the government as Minister of Industry and Trade from 2002 to 2007 and later as Minister of the Digital Economy, Information and Communication from 2015 to 2016. On 4 June 2021, he was named Prime Minister of the Transition by coup leader & newly appointed President of Transition Assimi Goïta.
Soumeylou Boubèye Maïga was a Malian politician who was the Prime Minister of Mali between 30 December 2017 and 18 April 2019. The leader of the Alliance for Solidarity in Mali, he had previously served in the government of Mali as Minister of Foreign Affairs under President Amadou Toumani Touré from 5 April 2011 until the March 2012 coup d'état. Later he was Minister of Defense from 2013 to 2014 and was Secretary-General of the Presidency from 2016 to 2017.
A constitutional referendum was held in Mali on 18 June 2023. It was initially scheduled for 9 July 2017. However, in late June 2017 it was postponed with no date set, before being revived in mid-April 2021, with a date set of 31 October 2021. Due to the 2021 Malian coup d'état it was indefinitely postponed, with plans for it to be held by 2024. It was later scheduled for 19 March 2023, but then postponed again. On 5 May 2023 the ruling junta announced in a decree that it would be held on 18 June.
Protests in Mali began on 5 June 2020 when protesters gathered in the streets of Bamako, calling for Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta to resign as president of Mali. The protests ended after a coup d'état on 18 August 2020. Both the president and prime minister of Mali were detained that afternoon, and in the evening they announced their resignations.
On 18 August 2020, elements of the Malian Armed Forces began a mutiny, and subsequently undertook a coup d'état. Soldiers on pick-up trucks stormed the Soundiata military base in the town of Kati, where gunfire was exchanged before weapons were distributed from the armory and senior officers arrested. Tanks and armoured vehicles were seen on the town's streets, as well as military trucks heading for the capital, Bamako. The soldiers detained several government officials including President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, who resigned and dissolved the government. This was the country's second coup in less than 10 years, following the 2012 coup d'état. On a subregional level, the coup also marked an end to a period of nearly six years, since the 2014 Burkina Faso uprising and the ousting of Burkina Faso's President Blaise Compaoré, during which there was not a single undemocratic change of government in West Africa. For this subregion, where many countries have a history of civil war and violent conflict, this was a period of remarkable stability, during which ECOWAS even managed to find a peaceful resolution to the 2016–2017 Gambian constitutional crisis.
Colonel Assimi Goïta is a Malian military officer who has been interim President of Mali since 28 May 2021. Goïta was the leader of the National Committee for the Salvation of the People, a military force that seized power from former president Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta in the 2020 Malian coup d'état. Goïta later seized power from Bah Ndaw in the 2021 Malian coup d'état and has since been declared interim president of Mali.
The National Committee for the Salvation of the People was the ruling military junta of Mali from 2020 to 2021. It seized power during the 2020 Malian coup d'état and was formally dissolved by Interim President Bah Ndaw in 2021. However, the military junta has effectively remained in power since then as a transitional government under the leadership of Interim President Colonel Assimi Goïta.
Bah Ndaw is a Malian retired military officer and politician who served as the president of Mali between 25 September 2020 and 24 May 2021 when he was overthrown during the 2021 Malian coup d'état. Between May 2014 and January 2015 he was Minister of Defense.
The vice president of Mali is an ad hoc governmental position in Mali. There is no provision for a vice president in the Constitution of Mali and the position has only existed under military regimes. Normally, the constitution instead designates the Prime Minister and the President of the National Assembly step in as interim presidents during temporary and absolute absences, respectively.
Events in the year 2021 in Mali.
The 2021 Malian coup d'état began on the night of 24 May 2021 when the Malian Army led by Vice President Assimi Goïta captured President Bah N'daw, Prime Minister Moctar Ouane and Minister of Defence Souleymane Doucouré. Assimi Goïta, the head of the junta that led the 2020 Malian coup d'état, announced that N'daw and Ouane were stripped of their powers and that new elections would be held in 2022. It is the country's third coup d'état in ten years, following the 2012 and 2020 military takeovers, with the latter having happened only nine months earlier.
Colonel Sadio Camara is a Malian military officer currently serving as Minister of Defence, who took active part in the 2020 Malian coup d'état along with Colonel Assimi Goïta that ousted the government of Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta.
Presidential elections were scheduled to be held in Mali on 27 February 2022, following a 2021 coup. After being postponed, in July 2022 the elections were rescheduled for 4 February 2024. In September 2023, the junta stated that the elections would be "slightly postponed for technical reasons".
Parliamentary elections were scheduled to be held in Mali on 29 October 2023, after originally being planned for 27 February 2022. However, they were postponed by the military junta that took power in a 2021 coup.
The Alliance of Sahel States (AES/ASS) is a mutual defense pact created between Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso on 16 September 2023. The pact was created during the 2023 Nigerien crisis in which the West African political bloc ECOWAS threatened to intervene militarily to restore civilian rule after a coup in Niger earlier that year. All of these three states were increasing ties to Russia during creation of the organization. As such Russia is presumed to be brokering this agreement. EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell stated it led to a "new geopolitical configuration" in the region.
Maliportal