President Keita faces no shortage of challenges to his authority. Can he hold on to power?
Once considered a beacon of democracy and stability in Africa, Mali in recent years has been dogged by a coup, civil war and Islamist terrorism
Incumbent Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta will be Mali’s next president but an unremarkable first term, and a flawed election, could put a dent in his legacy
Soumaila Cisse: ‘We have a large lead. We do not accept that our voice is stolen. This is why there are results we will not accept’
On the eve of voting, authorities said they had disrupted a plot to carry out "targeted attacks" in the capital Bamako
After the July 29 first-round vote the pool of candidates was reduced from 24 to two
In the north and centre of the country — shaken by jihadist violence and lawlessness — tension has been sharpened by the vote
About 20 hostages freed by special forces
Renegade Mali soldiers claim to have seized the presidential palace and arrested several ministers after a gun battle, in an apparent coup d’etat.
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/ 20 December 2011
Algerian troops have crossed into Mali to help government forces combat groups affiliated to al-Qaeda, officials and witnesses have said.
A Tunisian man who claimed to be an al-Qaeda member exploded a gas cylinder in front of the French embassy in Mali on Wednesday.
Spain plans to help Mali fight al-Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb, the Mali president’s office announced on Tuesday.
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/ 9 February 2009
An alleged proof-of-life video raised hopes on Sunday over the fate of two Canadian diplomats who were kidnapped almost eight weeks ago in Niger.
The EU on Monday moved to export its controls on illegal immigration for the first time by setting up a new office in Africa.
Tuareg rebels attacked an army camp in north-eastern Mali where 17 rebels and 15 soldiers were killed in one of the bloodiest clashes to date in a revolt by the desert insurgents, the government said on Thursday. A Defence Ministry statement said an ”armed band” assaulted the camp at Abebara during the night of Tuesday to Wednesday in Mali’s remote north-east.
Mali’s government and Tuareg rebels led by Ibrahim Ag Bahanga, whose men have kidnapped 33 army troops, agreed to an immediate truce during Libyan-brokered peace talks, a Libyan diplomat said on Thursday. ”Malian government and rebel envoys accepted a ceasefire on the ground from Thursday,” said the diplomat.
Rebels in northern Mali are holding about 30 soldiers hostage following an attack last week, military officials said on Sunday. Ethnic Tuareg rebels raided a military convoy in the desert Kidal region last week, taking several dozen troops hostage, a military official said on condition of anonymity because he was not an authorised spokesperson.
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/ 15 January 2008
A group of Malian illegal immigrants deported from Mozambique started trashing their plane in protest as it arrived in the capital, Bamako, on Tuesday, airport officials said. The 80-strong group of deportees tried to damage both the interior and exterior of the plane in front of cabin crew from South Africa.
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/ 18 October 2007
The government in the West African state of Mali plans to abolish the death penalty, three decades after it carried out its last execution, it said on Thursday. A Cabinet meeting on Wednesday adopted a Bill that ”stipulated that the death penalty be abolished and … that it is replaced by life imprisonment”, said a statement.
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/ 13 September 2007
Tuareg rebels fired at a United States military plane dropping provisions to Malian troops in the north of the African country, but did not hit it, a US diplomatic source said here on Thursday. ”Our plane was shot at … but there was no damage,” the source said, adding that the plane completed its mission and returned to the Malian capital, Bamako.
At least 10 civilians and one soldier were killed in northern Mali on Thursday when their vehicles hit landmines planted by suspected Tuareg rebels. The casualties in the north of the Sahel state followed three attacks this week by the Malian rebels in the desolate mountain region near the border with Algeria and Niger.
Tuareg rebels from a new group that has reneged on a peace accord with Mali’s government kidnapped 15 soldiers from an eastern town and fled in the direction of Niger, Malian security officials said on Monday. Several security sources said Tuareg leader Ibrahim Ag Bahanga was behind the kidnapping.
On a four-hour visit to Mali on Friday, United States First Lady Laura Bush said she was ”touched” by the African country’s effort to educate its young people. Mali was the last stop on the former schoolteacher’s tour of Africa, which also included visits to Zambia, Mozambique and Senegal.
A high-school teacher and a journalist were given jail terms on Tuesday for insulting Mali’s President Amadou Toumani Touré, judicial sources said, in a case that has raised questions over press freedom in that country. Four other journalists charged with defaming the president were given suspended sentences in the case.
Fifteen years of multiparty democracy in Mali has failed to galvanise voters in the poverty-stricken west African nation, who enjoy the dubious honour of being the world’s most ballot-shy electorate. Last week’s presidential election garnered a turnout of around 36% — actually a comparatively high figure given Mali’s past record.
Mali’s President Amadou Toumani Touré has been re-elected with an absolute majority of votes cast in Sunday’s election, according to official results released on Thursday. Provisional results announced by the Territorial Administration Ministry showed Touré won 68,3% of valid votes, while main challenger Ibrahim Boubacar Keita took 18,6%.
Mali’s opposition vowed on Tuesday to challenge a weekend election that appears to have handed a new five-year mandate to incumbent President Amadou Toumani Touré. ”We will take appeal to the Constitutional Court to have the cancellation and rerun of this election,” said one opposition candidate.
A spokesperson for Mali’s President, Amadou Toumani Touré, on Monday claimed the incumbent leader had a second five-year term in a weekend election, but the opposition countered by crying foul. If confirmed, that would mean Touré won an outright majority in Sunday’s election.
Malians went to the polls on Sunday in presidential elections expected to hand the incumbent a second five-year term and boost the West African country’s democratic credentials. Amadou Toumani Touré, a former coup leader who won democratic acclaim, is seeking a new term as an independent candidate.
When Malians queue to cast ballots in presidential elections on Sunday, they will be participating in a poll with a difference: for the first time ever, a woman will be among the candidates. Sidibé Aminata Diallo is representing the Movement for Environmental Education and Sustainable Development.
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/ 21 December 2006
Mahamadou Diallo grasps a large ram by the horns, examining their curvature and the beast’s muscular form and markings to determine how much it will fetch for the Muslim world’s biggest sacrificial feast. At the end of December in the Eid al-Adha feast — known here as Tabaski — Muslim families will slaughter a sheep.
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/ 29 November 2006
Bourama Soumaoro’s pharmacy looks much like any other, packets of pills in glass cabinets and jars of powder to fight everything from toothache to dysentery. But nowhere in the doctor’s small shop in Mali’s capital Bamako is there a chemically manufactured drug.