Siege of Saïo the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, proclaimed the colony of "Africa Orientale Italiana" (AOI, Italian East Africa), formed from Ethiopia (after the Italian victory in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, fought 3 October 1935 – May 1936) and the existing Italian possessions of Italian Eritrea and Italian Somaliland. On 10 June 1940, Mussolini declared war on Britain and France, which made Italian military forces in Libya a threat to Egypt and those in Italian East Africa a danger to the British and French colonies in East Africa. Italian belligerence also closed the Mediterranean to Allied merchant ships and endangered British supply routes
Movement for the Independence, Renaissance, and Integration of Africa in the 2002 presidential election, and afterwards MIRIA President Mamadou Lamine Traoré was named Minister of National Education. MIRIA's Second National Conference, at which Traoré reiterated the party's support for Touré, opened on December 16, 2006. The party participated in the Alliance for Democracy and Progress, which backed Touré for re-election in the 2007 presidential election. Traoré died in July 2007. In the 1 July and 22 July 2007 parliamentary election, the party won two out of 160 seats. Movement for the Independence, Renaissance, and Integration of Africa The Movement for the Independence, Renaissance, and Integration of Africa () is