Editing History of Mali (section)

=== Under Moussa Traoré ===
{{Infobox country
| native_name            = {{native name|fr|République du Mali}}
| conventional_long_name = Republic of Mali
| common_name            = Mali
| image_flag             = Flag of Mali.svg
| image_coat             = Coat of arms of Mali.svg
| symbol_type            = [[Coat of arms of Mali|Emblem<br>(1973–1991)]]
| image_map              = Mali (orthographic projection).svg
| capital                = [[Bamako]]
| government_type        = [[One-party state|One-party]] [[military dictatorship]]
| leader1                = [[Moussa Traoré]]
| year_leader1           = 1968–1991
| title_leader           = [[List of heads of state of Mali|Head of State]]
| deputy1                = [[Yoro Diakité]] (''First Vice President'')
| year_deputy1           = 1968–1971
| deputy2                = [[Amadou Baba Diarra]] (''Second Vice President'')
| year_deputy3           = 1971–1991
| deputy3                = ''Vacant'' (''First Vice President'')
| year_deputy4           = 1979–1991
| deputy4                = ''Vacant'' (''Second Vice President'')
| year_deputy2           = 1968–1979
| title_representative   = [[Prime Minister of Mali|Prime Minister]]
| year_representative1   = 1968–1969
| representative1        = [[Yoro Diakité]]
| year_representative2   = 1969–1986
| representative2        = ''Post abolished''
| year_representative3   = 1986–1988
| representative3        = [[Mamadou Dembelé]]
| year_representative4   = 1988–1991
| representative4        = ''Post abolished''
| title_deputy           = [[Vice President of Mali|Vice President]]
| event_start            = [[1968 Malian coup d'état|Established]]
| date_start             = 19 November
| year_start             = 1968
| event_end              = [[1991 Malian coup d'état|Disestablished]]
| date_end               = 26 March
| p1                     = First Republic of Mali (1960–1968)
| s1                     = Republic of Mali
| flag_p1                = Flag of Mali.svg
| year_end               = 1991
| currency               = 
| flag_s1                = Flag of Mali.svg
| today                  = [[Republic of Mali]]
}}

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.<ref name=":1" /> The military leaders attempted to pursue economic reforms, but for several years faced debilitating internal political struggles and the disastrous Sahelian drought.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

A new constitution, approved in 1974, created a one-party state and was designed to move Mali toward civilian rule.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> However, the military leaders remained in power.<ref name=":2" /> In September 1976, a new political party was established, the [[Democratic Union of the Malian People]] (UDPM), based on the concept of [[democratic centralism]].<ref name=":2" /> Single-party presidential and legislative elections were held in June 1979, and Gen. Moussa Traoré received 99% of the votes.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> 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.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

The political situation stabilized during 1981 and 1982 and remained generally calm throughout the 1980s.<ref name=":2" /> In late December 1985, however, a border dispute between Mali and [[Burkina Faso]] over the mineral-rich [[Agacher Strip War|Agacher strip]] erupted into a brief war.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Burkina Faso: A Small West African Country Struggles to Bring Peace to Mali |url=https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/burkina-faso-small-west-african-country-struggles-bring-peace-mali}}</ref> The UDPM spread its structure to [[Cercle (French colonial)|cercle]]s and arrondissements across the land.<ref name=":2" />

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.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> It implemented cereal marketing liberalization,<ref>{{cite journal |title=Cereals Market Liberalization in Mali |journal=World Development|volume= 17 |issue=5 |pages=703–718 |year=1989 |first1=John M. |last1=Staatz |first2=Josue |last2=Dione |first3=N. |last3=Nango Dembele|doi=10.1016/0305-750X(89)90069-7 }}</ref> created new incentives to private enterprise, and worked out a new structural adjustment agreement with the [[International Monetary Fund]] (IMF).<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> 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.<ref name=":1" /> In response to the growing demands for multiparty democracy then sweeping the continent, the Traoré regime did allow some limited political liberalization.<ref name=":1" /> 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.<ref name=":1" /> Nevertheless, the regime refused to usher in a full-fledged democratic system.<ref name=":1" />

By 1990, cohesive opposition movements began to emerge, including the National Democratic Initiative Committee and the [[Alliance for Democracy in Mali]] (Alliance pour la Démocratie au Mali, ADEMA).<ref name=":1" /> The increasingly turbulent political situation was complicated by the rise of ethnic violence in the north in mid-1990.<ref name=":1" /> The return to Mali of large numbers of [[Tuareg people|Tuareg]] who had migrated to [[Algeria]] and [[Libya]] during the prolonged drought increased tensions in the region between the nomadic Tuareg and the sedentary population.<ref name=":1" /> Ostensibly fearing a Tuareg secessionist movement in the north, the Traoré regime imposed a state of emergency and harshly repressed Tuareg unrest.<ref name=":1" /> Despite the signing of a peace accord in January 1991, unrest and periodic armed clashes continued.<ref name=":1" />