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Kenzo Tribouillard / AFP / Getty Images
Friday's attack on Radisson Blu hotel that left as many as 27 people dead in Mali’s capital, Bamako, highlights the fact that despite a peace accord signed last summer, the wave of political violence that began four years ago in the country's sparsely populated north has not ended. The fighting that began in late 2011 when many ethnic Tuareg nomads who had fought for Muammar Gaddafi in Libya returned home and started an armed campaign for independence from Bamako. That coincided with a campaign of violence of by groups aligned with Al-Qaeda, demanding their own harsh form of Islamic law and governance. Although the Malian authorities and the main Tuareg alliance signed a peace agreement last summer, the pact does not include the Al Qaeda-aligned group that claimed responsibility for Friday's attack.
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December 2011: An estimated 2,500 heavily armed Tuareg, who had fought alongside Muammar Gaddafi in Libya’s civil war, return to their home country of Mali.
With the aim of establishing an independent Tuareg state called Azawad, they form the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and make common cause against the central government with groups like Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Ansar-Dine, who want to impose a strict interpretation of Sharia law.
March 2012: Malian soldiers stage a coup, seizing power from President Amadou Toumani Touré in protest at the government's failure to quell the rebellion in the north.
The newly formed National Committee for the Return of Democracy and the Restoration of the State (CNRDR) however struggled to put a stop to rebel groups expanding control throughout the country's north.
April 2012: Tuareg rebels seize regional capitals Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu, effectively controlling all of northern Mali. Tuareg fighters declare an independent state called Azawad, with the city of Gao as its capital.
September 2012: The rebels remain on the offensive throughout 2012, and seize the town of Douentza, crossing the boundary into central Mali.
January 2013: After the of town of Konna falls to fighters who planned to march on Bamako, France deploys about 2,500 ground troops to help the 3,000-strong African force already there to hold the line. The French-African forces roll back the rebel advances, recapturing Gao and Timbuktu before heading in to Kidal at the end of January.
April 2013: France begins withdrawal of some of its 4,000 troops, and transitions control to MINUSMA, a regional African force tasked with providing security and stability to assist the Malian army. By the end of 2013, the French seek to reduce their troop contingent to 1,000.
June 2013: A peace deal between Tuareg rebels and the government is signed, allowing the way to open for elections. The rebels agree to hand of Kidal, the town they captured following the French troops ousting of religious fighters in January.
August 2013: Two rebel groups — Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa and Mokhtar Belmokhtar's Masked Men Brigade — merged to form Al-Mourabitoun, the Al-Qaeda affiliated group that claimed responsibility for Friday's hotel attack.
It has repeatedly been claimed that Belmokhtar has been killed in various military operations, other reports suggest he may be alive and leading Al-Mourabitoun.
May 2014: Government truce with MNLA and other rebel groups break down. Rebel groups seize control of the city of Kidal and other towns.
August 2014: France and five West African countries — Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania and Niger — launch Operation Barkhane, a continuation of France's military operation in Mali and Chad to combat rebel fighters. Three thousand French troops take part in the operation.
October 2014: Nine United Nations MINUSMA peacekeepers have been killed in Mali in the deadliest attack yet on the UN mission to the West African country.
March 2015: Al-Mourabitoun attacks La Tarrasse, a restaurant and bar popular with foreigners, killing five people, including a Frenchman and a Belgian. The group said the attack was partly in revenge for the killing of a leader of Al Mourabitoun in a Franco-Malian military operation.
April 2015: French special forces free Dutch hostage Sjaak Rijke, who had been abducted by an al-Qaeda faction in Mali in 2011 by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) along with Johan Gustafsson from Sweden and Stephen Malcolm, who is a British-South African dual national. Gustafsson's and Malcolm's whereabouts are still unknown.
May 2015: French special forces kill four members of AQIM in northern Mali, including one of its leaders Amada Ag Hama. Ibrahim Ag Inawalen, a leader with Ansar Dine, was also killed.
June 2015: MNLA and the Malian government sign a peace deal, handing greater autonomy to the separatists in northern region of Mali in a bid to put an end to a cycle of uprisings. However, the deal remains fragile as attacks between various rebel groups and government-allied forces continue.
August 2015: Gunmen attack a hotel in central Mali used by United Nations staff, killing a UN employee and four others.
Al-Mourabitoun, an Al-Qaeda affiliate based in northern Mali, claims responsibility for attack at luxury hotel
Mongi Hamdi said talks are 'on track' after violence threatened agreement between the government and separatist fighters
Despite months of negotiations, a lasting political and security settlement remains uncertain
Three deaths reported in Kidal, including a UN soldier, a day after blast in Bamako nightclub killed five people
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