Military Coup in Mali Amid Tuareg Rebellion

On March 22, 2012, Malian army officers led by Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo overthrew President Amadou Toumani Touré, citing the government's failure to suppress a Tuareg rebellion that had erupted in January. The rebellion involved heavily armed Tuareg fighters returning from Libya after Gaddafi's 2011 collapse. Following the coup, northern Mali's three largest cities—Kidal, Gao, and Timbuktu—fell to rebel forces. Islamist groups allied with al-Qaeda, including Ansar Dine, displaced the Tuareg nationalist MNLA and imposed religious law across northern Mali. France deployed forces in January 2013 to halt jihadist forces advancing toward Bamako.