The Malian city Timbuktu is exemplary of this: situated on the southern fringe of the Sahara and close to the Niger River, it has played an important role in the trans-Saharan trade from the 13th century on, with the establishment of the Mali Empire.

[1] In these and other dry periods, the desert stretched repeatedly far to the north and south; its sand dunes can be found far beyond the present-day borders of the Sahara.

Even around 125,000 to 110,000 years ago there was an adequate network of waterways that allowed numerous animal species to spread northward, followed by human hunters.

Ceramics appeared at the central Malian site of Ounjougou dating to about 9,400 BC, and are believed to be an instance of the independent invention of pottery.

[9] This site belongs to the Ounjougou complex on the Yamé, where all eras since the Upper Paleolithic have left traces [10] and the oldest ceramics in Mali to 9400 BC.

On the basis of ethno-archaeological studies of ceramics, three groups were found that lived around Méma, the Canal de Sonni Ali and Windé Koroji on the border with Mauritania in the period around 2000 BC.

From the 1st millennium BC Paintings in the Boucle-du-Baoulé National Park (Fanfannyégèné), on the Dogon Plateau and in the Niger River Delta (Aire Soroba).

In contrast to these cattle breeders, who then drove their herds northwards again, the members of the simultaneous Kobadi tradition, who had lived exclusively from fishing, collecting wild grasses and hunting since the middle of the 2nd millennium at the latest, remained relatively stationary.

The Mali Empire had many profound cultural influences on West Africa, allowing the spread of its language, laws and customs along the Niger River.

Morocco subsequently controlled Gao, Timbuktu, Djenné (also seen as Jenne), and related trade routes with much difficulty until around the end of the 17th century.

It resisted the effort of Samori Ture, leader of Wassoulou Empire, in 1887, to conquer it, and was one of the last kingdoms in the area to fall to the French in 1898.

This empire, founded by El Hadj Umar Tall of the Toucouleur peoples, beginning in 1864, ruled eventually most of what is now Mali until the French conquest of the region in 1890.

On November 19, 1968, a group of young officers staged a bloodless coup and set up a 14-member Military Committee for National Liberation (CMLN), with Lt. Moussa Traoré as president.

[16] The military leaders attempted to pursue economic reforms, but for several years faced debilitating internal political struggles and the disastrous Sahelian drought.

[16][19] His efforts at consolidating the single-party government were challenged in 1980 by student-led anti-government demonstrations that led to three coup attempts, which were brutally quashed.

[19] Shifting its attention to Mali's economic difficulties, the government approved plans for some reforms of the state enterprise system, and attempted to control public corruption.

[16][19] It implemented cereal marketing liberalization,[citation needed] created new incentives to private enterprise, and worked out a new structural adjustment agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

[16][19] But the populace became increasingly dissatisfied with the austerity measures imposed by the IMF plan as well as their perception that the ruling elite was not subject to the same strictures.

[16] In response to the growing demands for multiparty democracy then sweeping the continent, the Traoré regime did allow some limited political liberalization.

[16] In National Assembly elections in June 1988, multiple UDPM candidates were permitted to contest each seat, and the regime organized nationwide conferences to consider how to implement democracy within the one-party framework.

[16] Running as an independent on a platform of national unity, Touré won the presidency in a runoff against the candidate of Adema, which had been divided by infighting and suffered from the creation of a spin-off party, the Rally for Mali.

[16] In the 2002 legislative elections, no party gained a majority; Touré then appointed a politically inclusive government and pledged to tackle Mali's pressing social and economic development problems.

[23] In response, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) froze assets and imposed an embargo, leaving some with only days of fuel.

[25] An extremist ministate in northern Mali is the unexpected result from the collapse of the earlier coup d'etat by the angry army officers.

[33] The peace deal between the Tuareg rebels and Malian government was broken in late November 2013 because of clashes in the northern city of Kidal.

[35] In August 2018, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was re-elected for a new five-year term after winning the second round of the election against Soumaïla Cissé.

The National Committee for the Salvation of the People led by Colonel Assimi Goïta took power, meaning the fourth coup happened since independence from France in 1960.

[41] According to Human Rights Watch (HRW) Malian troops and suspected Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group executed around 300 civilian men in central Mali in March 2022.

This initiative was part of a larger trend of African countries forming regional alliances to address shared challenges and advance their collective interests.

The proposal faced criticism and opposition due to concerns over cultural, historical, and economic differences between the two countries, as well as issues regarding the distribution of power and resources and potential loss of national sovereignty.