Babemba was the fifth and final Faama of the Kénédougou Kingdom, ruling from the 1893 death of his brother Tieba Traoré until the capture of Sikasso by the French in 1898.
He chose to maintain the relatively close relationship that his brother had established with the French, and expanded Kenedougou territory into modern-day Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.
[2]: 271 He expelled the commission, stopped paying the yearly tribute and, according to French sources, sent troops to attack them on the way back to Bamako.
The defenders' fierce sallies were unable to drive the besiegers away, and the city fell on May 1 amid furious house-to-house fighting.
Babemba, wounded during the defense of the citadel, ordered his bodyguards to kill him, an action still celebrated in Mali today.