On this day: March 13 in African history

Judar Pasha's Moroccan force, about 3,000 to 4,000 strong and armed with firearms, routed a much larger Songhai army at Tondibi. Firearms decided it. Askia Ishaq II withdrew, Gao and Timbuktu fell, and the Songhai empire came apart. Modern historians place the battle in March 1591; the main contemporary chronicle, the Tarikh es-Soudan, dates it a month later.

Sources: Military History Online ; UNESCO (General History of Africa, vol. V, ed. B. A. Ogot; chapter by Michel Abitbol, 'The end of the Songhay empire', pp. 300-303) ; Ernest Leroux, Paris (O. Houdas translation of al-Sa'di, Tarikh es-Soudan, 1900, pp. 217-220)

Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed

The British Army and The Illustrated London News, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

British forces occupied Bloemfontein, capital of the Orange Free State, during the Second Boer War.

Sources: War Museum of the Boer Republics (Bloemfontein) ; National Museum, Bloemfontein (National Museum Publications) ; AngloBoerWar.com

Nova3web, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

Gunmen attacked hotels in Grand-Bassam, Ivory Coast, killing at least 16 people.

Sources: BBC News ; CNN ; Associated Press, via USA Today

Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed

Christian Lambiotte / European Communities, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, Sierra Leonean politician credited with guiding the country to peace after its civil war, died.

Sources: BBC News ; The Guardian