2002 April - Amadou Toumani Toure elected President.

2002 September - France cancels 40 per cent of Mali’s debts worth about FCFA 52 billion.

2003 August - Clashes between rival Moslem groups in the west kill at least 10 people.

2004 April - Prime Minister Mohamed Ag Amani resigns and is replaced by Ousmane Issoufi Maiga.

2005 June - World Food Programme warns of severe food shortages.

2006 June - Government signs an Algerian-brokered peace deal with Tuareg rebels.

2007 April - President Toure wins a second five-year term in elections.

2008 December - At least 20 people killed and several taken hostage in an attack by Tuareg rebels on a military base in the north.

2009 February - 700 Tuareg rebels surrender their weapons at the beginning of a peace process.

2010 April - Mali, Algeria, Mauritania and Niger set up joint command to tackle terrorism.

2012 January - Fears of new Tuareg rebellion following attacks on northern towns.

2012 March - Military officers led by Captain Amadou Sanogo depose President Amadou Toumani Toure ahead of the April presidential election.

2012 April - Tuareg rebels seize control of northern Mali, then declare independence. The military hands over to a civilian interim government led by President Dioncounda Traore.

2012 May - Junta reasserts control after an alleged coup attempt by supporters of ousted President Toure in Bamako. Pro-junta protesters storm presidential compound and beat President Traore unconscious. The Tuareg MNLA and Islamist Ansar Dine rebel groups merge and declare northern Mali an Islamic State. Ansar Dine begins to impose Islamic law in Timbuktu. Al-Qaeda in North Africa endorses the deal.

2012 June-July - Ansar Dine and its Al-Qaeda ally Mujao, turn on the MNLA and capture the main northern cities of Timbuktu, Kidal and Gao. They begin to destroy many Moslem shrines that offend their puritan views.