Burkina Faso–Mali border

France occupied this area in 1900; Mali (then referred to as French Sudan) was originally included, along with modern Niger and Burkina Faso, within the Upper Senegal and Niger colony and became a constituent of the federal colony of French West Africa (Afrique occidentale française, abbreviated AOF).

[2] As the movement for decolonisation grew in the post-Second World War era, France gradually granted more political rights and representation for their sub-Saharan African colonies, culminating in the granting of broad internal autonomy to French West Africa in 1958 within the framework of the French Community.

[4] Eventually, in 1960, both Mali and Upper Volta (renamed Burkina Faso in 1984) gained independence, and their mutual frontier became an international one between two states.

[2] As the commission failed to come to a mutually satisfactory agreement, tensions began mounting between the two states, most notably over the easternmost section of the border known as the Agacher Strip, believed to be rich in minerals.

[5] Fighting then erupted in late 1974, continuing into the new year, before an Organisation of African Unity-sponsored ceasefire took effect by which both states agreed to set up a technical commission to resolve the dispute peacefully.