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| Source: CIA World Factbook |
Mali is a landlocked nation in Western Africa. It is the second largest country among West African nations.
It borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west.
Its straight borders on the north stretch into the centre of the Sahara desert, while the country's south, where the majority of inhabitants live, features the Niger and Senegal rivers.
Formerly French Sudan, the country is named after the Empire of Mali. The name of the country comes from the Bambara word for hippopotamus and the animal appears on the Mali 5 franc coin.
It is has a subtropical to arid climate. Subtropical to arid; hot and dry (February to June); rainy, humid, and mild (June to November); cool and dry (November to February). It is mostly flat, rising to rolling northern plains covered by sand, with savanna around the Niger River in the south.
The hills of the Air Massif and Djado Plateau lie in the northeast. Most of the country lies in the Sahara Desert, which produces a hot, dust-laden harmattan haze common during dry seasons and leads to recurring droughts. The country covers 1.24 million square kilometers [more...] |