Simple directory > Regional > Mali

Country : Mali Official name: République du Mali (Republic of Mali) Head of State: President Amadou Toumani Touré (sworn in 8 Jun 2002) Head of government: Prime Minister Ousmane Issoufi Maïga (appointed 29 Apr 2004) Ruling party: Espoir 2002 (Hope 2002) Coalition: Rassemblement pour le Mali (Rally for Mali), Congres Nationale pour la Initiative Démocratie (National Congress for Democratic Initiative) Area: 1,241,238 square km Population: 11.79 million (2004) Capital: Bamako Official language: French Currency: CFA franc (CFAf) = 100 centimes (Communauté Financière Africaine (African Financial Community) franc). New notes have been issued; old notes cease to be legal tender from Jan 2005. Exchange rate: CFAf507.21 per US$ (Nov 2004); CFAf655.95 per euro (pegged from Jan 1999) GDP per capita: US$316 (2003) GDP real growth: 5.60% (2003) Labour force: 3.93 million (2003) Unemployment: 14.60% (2003) Inflation: -0.80% (2003) Balance of trade: US$50.00 million (2003) Foreign debt: US$3.30 billion (2003)

Historical profile

900 Modern-day Mali was part of the empire of Ghana.

1250s Sundiata Keita, leader of the Mandinka people, established the Empire of Mali, which stretched from the Atlantic to the present-day borders of Nigeria and controlled most trans-Sahara trading routes by the fourteenth century.

1464 The Songhai Empire, centred around Gao, overwhelmed the Mali Empire and began to conquer the Sahel.

1591 After a Moroccan invasion, the Songhai Empire collapsed.

1890s Mali became a French colony.

1960 Mali gained independence from France as part of the Federation of Mali, which was dissolved a few weeks later when Senegal broke away. The Republic of Mali was established and Modibo Keita became the country's first president.

1968 Keita was overthrown by a military coup, led by Moussa Traoré, who became president.

1977 Protests erupted following Keita's death in prison.

1979 A new constitution provided for elections in which Traoré was elected as president.

1985 A border war erupted between Mali and Burkina Faso, but was ended after intervention by other African states.

1991 Following pro-democracy demonstrations, Traoré was deposed by a military coup. A 25-member military/civilian Transitional People's Salvation Committee came to power, led by Lieutenant Colonel Amadou Toumani Touré.

1992 Touré organised elections, in which he did not take part, before stepping down. Alpha Oumar Konaré was democratically elected president.

1995 A peace agreement with Tuareg rebels led to the return of thousands of refugees from neighbouring African states.

1997 President Konaré was re-elected..

1999 Traoré was sentenced to death for corruption, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by President Konaré, who announced that he would not contest the next presidential election, due in 2002.

2000 Mande Sidibe, a former IMF official, was appointed prime minister.

2001 The president announced the indefinite postponement of a constitutional referendum which proposed granting him immunity from prosecution.

2002 Mande Sidibe resigned and Modibo Keita was appointed to the post of prime minister .

Amadou Toumani Touré won the run-off presidential election and named Ahmed Mohamed Ag Hamani as prime minister. The Constitutional Court reversed the outcome of the parliamentary elections. The government resigned without public explanation and a new government of national reconciliation took over.

2003 In March, the IMF announced that Mali was to benefit from debt relief amounting to approximately US$675 million under the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.

2004 On 28 April, Prime Minister Ahmed Mohamed Ag Hamani and his government resigned. Ousmane Issoufi Maïga was appointed prime minister and the technocrat government was re-shuffled in May.

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