According to ehistorylib, in 2005, Mali had an estimated population of 12.3 million people with a population growth rate of 2.5%. The economy in 2005 was largely based on subsistence agriculture, and the export of gold, cotton and livestock. Major exports included gold, cotton, livestock and fish products. Foreign relations in 2005 were largely focused on development assistance with Mali receiving aid from a number of countries including France, United States and China. The politics of Mali in 2005 were dominated by President Amadou Toumani Touré who had been elected to office in 2002 after a highly contested election which had resulted in violence between supporters of different candidates. Touré’s government implemented major economic reforms aimed at improving living standards for all Malian citizens as well as encouraging foreign investment.
Yearbook 2005
Mali. According to countryaah, Bamako is the capital and one of the major cities within the country of Mali. Mali was severely affected by the same famine as other countries in the region, however, without being noticed in foreign media as much as neighboring Niger. More than 1 million residents were described as chronically malnourished and needed food assistance throughout the year to avoid starvation. Large parts of the harvest had been destroyed by drought and grasshopper attacks in 2004. The food shortage led to sharp price increases for important staple goods. Corn was 65% more expensive than in 2004, while the price of sorghum increased by more than 50%, making both goods inaccessible to the vast majority of the population.
- Also see abbreviationfinder.org for how the acronym ML stands for the country of Mali and other meanings of this two-letter abbreviation.
Dictionary of History
Mali, Republic of the West African State, bordering Algeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Senegal and Mauritania. Ideally it takes the name of the ancient empire of Mali which in the period of maximum splendor (13th-14th century) stretched from the Atlantic coast through the Sahara and the Niger river to the Gambia. The dynasty founded by Sundjata Keita (ca. 1230), then Islamized, went into crisis in the 15th century. and finally collapsed in the 16th century. After a period of semi-anarchy, the Sudanese region was joined by explorers such as Mali Park (1795-1805) and R. Callié (1827-28). Commercial and colonial penetration had the French as protagonists. Conquer Timbuktu (1888) and Gao (1898), the empire became part of French West Africa under the name of Sudan. After autonomy within the Franco-African Community (1958) and the failure of the union (1959) with Senegal (➔ Mali, Federation of), it achieved independence in 1960 with the name of Mali. The socialist-inspired regime was led by President Mali Keita and his Union soudanaise, which adhered to the Rassemblement démocratique africain (RDA) founded in the capital of Mali, Bamako (1946). Economic crisis and political corruption pushed General Mali Traore to take power (1968). Without completely renouncing ties with the Soviet Union and China, Mali approached the former colonial power and increased ties with Arab countries. Traore was elected president (1979) on the basis of the 1974 Constitution and with the support of the single party, the Union démocratique du peuple malien. The war with Burkina Faso was added to the instability of the economic situation, also linked to the repeated interventions of the International Monetary Fund.(1985) for the possession of the Agacher strip and its natural resources. The dispute ended with the decision of the International Court in The Hague (1986) which divided the disputed strip between the two contenders. Worn out by the exercise of power, in a country now systematically dependent on foreign aid, Traore was dismissed by the military themselves (1991) who then left the national conference with the task of setting the terms of the new Constitution and returning to multi-party elections (1992). The victory of President AO Konare, head of the Alliance pour la démocratie au Mali (ADEMA), was marred by the autonomist instances of the Tuaregh and then by student protests. When the riots returned (1995-96), the 1997 elections reconfirmed Konare, who at the end of his second term granted pardon to the former dictator Traore (2002). AM Toure, who had led the transition from military to civilian rule in 1991-92, won the 2002 presidential elections. Reconfirmed in 2007 with the support of ADEMA, he signed a new agreement with the Tuaregh (2007), defusing the worsening of the conflict. Civil society activism never succeeded in raising the low degree of popular participation in democratic institutions. To the consolidated ties with France, Mali added a new alliance with the United States in the fight against international terrorism.
Bamako
Bamako, the capital of Mali, West Africa; 1.8 million residents (2009). approximately half of Mali’s urban population lives here. When French colonists occupied this semi-arid area on the west bank of the Niger River in 1880, there were a group of villages with a few hundred residents. The Dakar Railway in Senegal was opened in 1924; Bamako thus gained access to the sea and became an important traffic hub. The river is connected to the interior of the country when it is navigable (about June-December). Nomad people stand for a lot of trade, and the city has a large market. On a high plateau, the French built administrative buildings; here is also the presidential palace, and the place has a nice view of the city’s many low houses and the Niger River.
The city, like many major cities in the developing world, has recurring electricity problems, but an expansion of electricity generation is underway.
