The modern state of Guinea did not come into existence until 1958, but the history of the area stretches back well before European colonization. Its current boundaries were determined during the colonial period by the Berlin Conference (1884–1885) and the French, who ruled Guinea until 1958.
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 on the north by Algeria, on the east by Niger, on the northwest by Mauritania, on the south by Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire, and on the west by Guinea and Senegal. The population of Mali is 21.9 million. 67% of its population was estimated to be under the age of 25 in 2017. Its capital and largest city is Bamako. It has 13 official languages, of which Bambara is the most spoken one.
Blaise Compaoré is a Burkinabé-Ivorian former politician who served as the second president of Burkina Faso from 1987 to 2014. He was a close associate of the first president, Thomas Sankara, during the 1980s, and in October 1987, he led a coup d'état during which Sankara was killed. Subsequently, he introduced a policy of 'rectification', overturning the leftist and Third Worldist policies pursued by Sankara. He won elections in 1991, 1998, 2005 and 2010, in what were considered unfair circumstances. His attempt to amend the constitution to extend his 27-year term caused the 2014 Burkinabé uprising. On 31 October 2014, Compaoré resigned, whereupon he fled to the Ivory Coast. In April 2022, he was found guilty by a special military tribunal of complicity in Sankara’s murder. He is also the longest serving president of Burkina Faso.
Amadou Toumani Touré was a Malian politician. He supervised Mali's first multiparty elections as chairman of the transitional government (1991–1992), and later became the second democratically elected President of Mali (2002–2012).
Burkina Faso elects on the national level a head of state – the president – and a legislature. The president is elected for a five-year term by the people. The National Assembly has 127 members, elected for a five-year term by proportional representation. Burkina Faso has held democratic elections since 1965. The history of elections has been slightly inconsistent, with the government dynamically changing at the hands of various coups, constitutional changes, and boycotts from various political parties. In 2015, the country experienced its first peaceful and fair election ever. Corruption plagued Burkina Faso's presidential elections for 50 years, but following a coup overthrowing Blaise Compaoré, the nation has seen more democratic and less corrupt electoral processes. Terrorism has played a substantial role in Burkina Faso's elections, with candidates running on the promise to keep the nation safe from the rise of Islamic jihadism they experienced in the 2010s. Historically, a few different parties have held power in Burkina. The Organization for Popular Democracy – Labour Movement was former president Compaoré's party affiliation, and thus they held power from 1987 to 2014. His party took power through a coup, and in 2014 also lost their control when the Regiment of Presidential Security overthrew the government.
The Sudanese Union – African Democratic Rally (US-RDA) was a political party in Mali.
Moussa Traoré was a Malian soldier, politician, and dictator who was President of Mali from 1968 to 1991. As a lieutenant, he led the military ousting of President Modibo Keïta in 1968. Thereafter he served as head of state until March 1991, when he was overthrown by popular protests and a military coup.
Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, often known by his initials IBK, was a Malian politician who served as the president of Mali from September 2013 to August 2020, when he was forced to resign in the 2020 Malian coup d'état. He served as Mali's prime minister from February 1994 to February 2000 and as president of the National Assembly of Mali from September 2002 to September 2007.
The Rally for Mali is a Malian political party created by Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta in June 2001. In 2013, Keita was elected President of Mali following several unsuccessful attempts, and the party took first place in parliamentary elections, winning 66 seats, although not enough for a majority.
Oumar Mariko is a Malian politician, doctor and noted former student activist. He is the Secretary-General of African Solidarity for Democracy and Independence (SADI), a left-wing political party, and has three times run for President of Mali, in 2002, 2007 and 2013.
Dioncounda Traoré is a Malian politician who was President of Mali in an interim capacity from April 2012 to September 2013. Previously he was President of the National Assembly of Mali from 2007 to 2012, and he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1994 to 1997. He was President of the Alliance for Democracy in Mali-African Party for Solidarity and Justice (ADEMA-PASJ) beginning in 2000, and he was also President of the Alliance for Democracy and Progress (ADP), an alliance of parties that supported the re-election of President Amadou Toumani Touré in 2007.
Parliamentary elections were held in Mali on 23 February 1992 and 8 March 1992, the first after the March 1991 military coup that overthrew President Moussa Traoré. Following the coup, the Comité Transitoire de Salut du Peuple (CTSP) was created to manage the democratic transition. This body established a transitional government headed by Amadou Toumani Touré, the leader of the military group responsible for overthrowing Traoré. The transitional government oversaw a constitutional referendum and municipal elections in January 1992, the parliamentary elections in February and March, and the April 1992 presidential elections.
Presidential elections were held in Mali on 28 July 2013, with a second round run-off held on 11 August. Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta defeated Soumaïla Cissé in the run-off to become the new President of Mali.
The 2012 Malian coup d'état began on 21 March that year, when mutinying Malian soldiers, displeased with the management of the Tuareg rebellion, attacked several locations in the capital Bamako, including the presidential palace, state television, and military barracks. The soldiers, who said they had formed the National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and State, declared the following day that they had overthrown the government of Amadou Toumani Touré, forcing him into hiding. The coup was followed by "unanimous" international condemnation, harsh sanctions by Mali's neighbors, and the swift loss of northern Mali to Tuareg forces, leading Reuters to describe the coup as "a spectacular own-goal". On 6 April, the junta agreed with Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) negotiators that they would step down from power in return for the end of sanctions, giving power to a transitional government led by parliament speaker Dioncounda Traoré. In the following days, both Touré and coup leader Amadou Sanogo formally resigned; however, as of 16 May, the junta was still "widely thought to have maintained overall control". On 3 December 2013, a mass grave was discovered in Diago holding the remains of 21 soldiers that went missing the year before, loyal to the ousted president.
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.
Presidential elections were held in Mali on 29 July 2018. In July 2018, the Constitutional Court approved the nomination of a total of 24 candidates in the election. As no candidate received more than 50% of the vote in the first round, a runoff was held on 12 August 2018 between the top two candidates, incumbent President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta of the Rally for Mali and Soumaïla Cissé of the Union for the Republic and Democracy. Keïta was subsequently re-elected with 67% of the vote. It was the first time in Malian history that a presidential election was forced into a runoff between incumbent and a challenger.
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. 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.
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.
Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in Mali on 4 February 2024. Previously they were scheduled to be held on 27 February 2022.
Maliportal 