[3] Sunni Ali organized a powerful fleet on the Niger river, and in 1473 used it to lay siege to Djenne, which surrendered only after being reduced to starvation.
In order to bring his fleet to bear in an attempt to conquer Walata, he tried to dig a canal hundreds of kilometers to the town from Ras el Ma.
[6] In addition to external enemies, Sunni Ali fought campaigns against the Fulani of Massina and other nomadic peoples raiding within his borders.
[8] Sunni Ali ruled over both urban Muslims and rural non-Muslims at a time when the traditional co-existence of different beliefs was being challenged.
His adherence to African animism while also professing Islam leads some writers to describe him as outwardly or nominally Muslim.