Timeline: How Mali went from democracy beacon to instability

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Mali’s security crisis has worsened since rival armed groups have allied and launched coordinated attacks across the country.

Al-Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) has claimed responsibility for attacks by gunmen that began on Saturday. They were carried out in Kati near Bamako as well as the capital’s airport and other locations farther north, including Kidal, Mopti, Sevare and Gao. Tuareg rebels claimed participation in the assaults.

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Defence Minister Sadio Camara was killed in the attacks.

The attacks have exposed security vulnerabilities in the country, which once was a beacon of democracy in the region but has been reeling from political and security crises since 2012.

Here’s a timeline of how the security situation has deteriorated in Mali:

1960: Mali gains independence

The former French colony became independent on September 22, 1960, and Modibo Keita was elected the country’s first president.

Keita was a staunch proponent of African socialism. But his rule of the country through socialist policies of nationalisation failed to yield economic benefits. The country also experienced severe droughts, which led to poor harvests under his leadership.

In November 1968, Keita was overthrown in a bloody military coup led by Lieutenant Moussa Traore.

1968-1991: Military dictatorship

After leading the coup, Traore established himself as president for the next 23 years.

According to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, Traore established “a highly repressive regime that routinely opened fire on protesters and eliminated rivals or those that dared to voice dissent”.

In a 2020 report, the centre noted that Traore’s government was likely responsible for the killing of thousands of Malians while economic growth was “anaemic”. Corruption was also rampant during his rule, the report said.

In March 1991 after mass student-led protests, Lieutenant Colonel Amadou Toumani Toure led a coup to overthrow Traore.

“After his ouster, Traore was tried and convicted for the killing of at least 200 protesters in March 1991. He was later pardoned for his crimes by President Alpha Oumar Konare in 2002,” the report added.

1992-2012: Democracy prevails

After the 1991 coup, Toure served as interim head of state during a transition that led to a new constitution and multiparty elections. While the northern part of the country was still unstable with Tuareg rebels seeking to secure their own independent region, the country held municipal, parliamentary and presidential elections in 1992. Alpha Oumar Konare was elected president.

Konare served two terms from 1992 to 2002 during which, according to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, there was steady economic growth and citizens enjoyed civil liberties and political rights. During this time, Mali also became a founding member of the intergovernmental Community of Democracies in 2000.

In 2002, elections were held again, and Toure, who led the 1991 coup, was elected president. During his two terms, which lasted until 2012, corruption was rife in government institutions and the economy shrank.

2012-2020: Military coup and security deterioration

In March 2012, Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo led a coup weeks before elections and forced Toure to resign. He established a military government, and Dioncounda Traore was made interim civilian president until elections could be organised.

During this period, ethnic Tuareg separatists, allied with fighters from an al-Qaeda offshoot, launched a rebellion that took control of northern Mali.

The instability in the north led leaders from neighbouring African countries to suggest that members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) fight alongside the Malian military against the Tuareg rebels.

Sanogo, however, refused the deployment of foreign forces and asked for logistical support only.

Fighters from another armed group, Ansar Dine, swiftly pushed out the Tuareg rebels and seized key northern cities. This triggered French military intervention in early 2013 at the request of the government. Ansar Dine later merged with several other groups to form the JNIM.

In September 2013, the country held elections, and Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was elected president. His fragile democratic rule ended in 2020 in yet another military coup. During his time in power, the United Nations brokered a peace deal between his government and northern Tuareg groups fighting for an independent Azawad in 2015.

2020: Another military coup

Colonel Assimi Goita led the coup that deposed Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August 2020 after months of mass protests over severe economic problems and the renewed advance of armed groups in the north. In September that year, Bah Ndaw, a retired colonel, was sworn in as interim president with Goita as vice president.

2021-2026 – Yet another military coup and Goita’s rule

In May 2021, Goita seized power in a second coup. Mali is currently ruled by Goita’s military government. Initially, it pledged to return Mali to civilian rule by March 2024, but it has not kept this promise.

Goita invited Russian mercenaries to support the military administration in its fight against armed groups in December 2021 after asking French troops, who had been helping to hold off rebels in the north, to leave the country.

France and other supporting European Union nations eventually withdrew in 2023, leaving a security vacuum in Mali.

During Goita’s rule, Mali along with Burkina Faso and Niger withdrew from ECOWAS in January 2025. Together, the three nations formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).

Last week, Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop attended a security forum in Senegal, where he said the withdrawal from ECOWAS was “final” but AES would maintain a constructive dialogue with the bloc on freedom of movement and preserving a common market.

In January 2024, Mali’s rulers terminated the UN-brokered 2015 peace deal with Tuareg rebels in the north, accusing them of not complying with the agreement. This led to a breakdown in the country’s security situation once again.

Besides unrest in the north, the JNIM, which has been active in Mali since it was formed in 2017, began a fuel import blockade in October, crippling life in and around Bamako.

Despite being at odds with each other in terms of goals, Tuareg rebels and the JNIM have launched coordinated attacks against the government, which they consider their common enemy.

In July 2024, they ambushed a military convoy transporting Malian personnel and Russian mercenaries to Tinzaouaten in northeastern Mali.

Then in April this year, they launched the coordinated strikes on Bamako’s airport and in Kati, Mopti, Sevare and Gao.

Adama Gaye, political commentator on the Sahel and West Africa, told Al Jazeera that now the Goita-led military government “cannot have legitimacy in their own country”.

“They have been terrible in economic progress, peace and stability,” he said, describing the ongoing situation in Mali as “very dire”.

“These attacks will be another negative aspect to their claims that they can control Mali,” he said.