Gao

Gao is a city in Mali and the capital of the Gao Region, located on the River Niger about 320 kilometers east-southeast of Timbuktu. It was an important center of trans-Saharan trade for much of its history, described by Arabic writers as a regional power by the 9th century, and it became part of the Mali Empire near the end of the 13th century before rising as capital of the Songhai Empire under Sunni Ali in the late 15th century. The Songhai Empire collapsed after a Moroccan invasion in 1591, after which the invaders made Timbuktu their capital, and by the time of Heinrich Barth's 1854 visit Gao had declined to an impoverished village of about 300 huts; its population was recorded at 86,633 in 2009. In 2012 Gao was captured by the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad and Ansar Dine rebels, who briefly declared it capital of an independent Azawad before Islamist militias took control and French forces recaptured the city in early 2013 during Operation Serval.