Mali

Mali: - 8 regions; - 1 district; - 708 communes; - 11,000 villages. Mali has three seasons: - the hot season, from March to June; - the rainy season, from July to October; - the cool season, from November to February.

History:
From the third century until the arrival of the French, Mali saw five major empires emerge:
-the Empire of Ghana;
-the Empire of Mali;
-the Empire of Songhoi;
-the Bamanan Empire of Ségou;
-the Peulh Empire of Macina.

POPULATION: 11,700,000 (1999)

GEOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT: Located 700 km from the ocean in the heart of West Africa, Mali is bordered by seven countries: Senegal, Mauritania, Algeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, and Guinea.

CLIMATE: The climate and vegetation are divided into three zones:
In the north: desert zone, herbaceous vegetation (Saharan zone);
In the centre: Sahalian zone, spiniferous vegetation, very hot;
In the south: Sudanese climate, savanna and open forest.

SURFACE AREA: 1,240,000 km2

Currency: CFA Franc (1 $CDN = 423 CFAF, floating rate).

Agriculture: 45% of GDP in 1998.

Commercial production: cottonseed, 498,000 tonnes; sugar cane, 285,700 tonnes; peanuts, 134,000 tonnes; karité nuts, 85,000 tonnes; mangos, 50,800 tonnes; pepper, 3,000 tonnes; acacia gum.

Livestock: goats (8.6 million), sheep (6 million), cattle (5.7 million), donkeys (650,000), camels/dromedaries (365,000), horses (135,000).

Fishing: 133,000 tonnes of freshwater fish.

Mines and industries: 21% of GDP in 1998.

Mineral reserves: gold, iron, manganese, bauxite, uranium, lithium,
chrome, marble, phosphates, kaolin, diamonds.

Productions (1997): gold (18.5 tonnes), phosphates (10,000 tonnes), salt, marble. New exploration projects are underway in search of gold, diamonds, and lithium.

Agri-food industries: sugar (25,500 tonnes), peanut oil (28,900 tonnes), cotton (22,500 tonnes), cottonseed meal (70,000 tonnes), peanut cake (41,900 tonnes), karité butter (16,900 tonnes), beer and non-alcoholic beverages, meat processing, cigarettes, cotton ginning, soap, textiles, shoes, cement.

Communications and services: Bamako International Airport as well as approximately a dozen secondary airports; 2,300 km of navigable waterways; 1,250 km of railway (Dakar–Bamako line); 50,000 km of roads, of which 2,700 are paved.

Visit:
http://www.izf.net/izf/annuaires/mali/pages%20annuaire%20mali.htm
www.malipages.com
www.africa-onweb.com

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