Mali

Thank you extremely “religious” people

Thank you all those within Mali who think that they will win anything by targeting, executing or abducting western visitors to the country. For months now we have followed the latest news and every time something happened we thought we would…

MarkoAugust 9, 2015August 18, 2015 English, Mali No Comments

Arrival in West Africa

Day #4 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Wow, these have been busy days. A lot of new experiences, new impressions. A lot of new odours. Some heat. The flight was uneventful, KLM/Air France was proper, the new security methods in Amsterdam…

MarkoJune 27, 2015June 27, 2015 Benin, Burkina Faso, English, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali, Togo No Comments

Travel advice for our trip

Good preparation is paramount when traveling. The more so if the country is not on the list of most frequently visited countries by tourists. None of our six countries are on that list. Therefore I took a quick look at…

MarkoJune 18, 2015June 18, 2015 Benin, Burkina Faso, English, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali, Togo 1 Comment

The Sudanese Republic and Senegal became independent of France in 1960 as the Mali Federation. When Senegal withdrew after only a few months, what formerly made up the Sudanese Republic was renamed Mali. Rule by dictatorship was brought to a close in 1991 by a military coup that ushered in a period of democratic rule. President Alpha KONARE won Mali's first two democratic presidential elections in 1992 and 1997. In keeping with Mali's two-term constitutional limit, he stepped down in 2002 and was succeeded by Amadou Toumani TOURE, who was elected to a second term in a 2007 election that was widely judged to be free and fair. Malian returnees from Libya in 2011 exacerbated tensions in northern Mali, and Tuareg ethnic militias rebelled in January 2012. Low- and mid-level soldiers, frustrated with the poor handling of the rebellion, overthrew TOURE on 22 March. Intensive mediation efforts led by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) returned power to a civilian administration in April with the appointment of Interim President Dioncounda TRAORE. The post-coup chaos led to rebels expelling the Malian military from the three northern regions of the country and allowed Islamic militants to set up strongholds. Hundreds of thousands of northern Malians fled the violence to southern Mali and neighboring countries, exacerbating regional food shortages in host communities. An international military intervention to retake the three northern regions began in January 2013 and within a month most of the north had been retaken. In a democratic presidential election conducted in July and August of 2013, Ibrahim Boubacar KEITA was elected president.

Source: CIA world fact book.