 |
| | |
| Official
Name : | RÉPUBLIQUE
DU MALI ( Republic of Mali) |
| Land
Area: | 1,240,000
square kilometres / 478,640 square miles. |
| Population: | 12,292,000
(est 2005). Density 9.9 persons per square kilometre.. |
| Languages: | French
(official), Bambara, Fulfuldé, Songhai, Tamashek. |
| Religions: |
Muslim 90%,
Traditional 9%. |
| Capital: | Bamako.
Population 800,000 |
| Currency: | CFA
franc, divided into 100 centimes. |
| Political: |
The Sudanese Republic and
Senegal became independent of France in 1960 as the Mali Federation. When Senegal
withdrew after only a few months, the Sudanese Republic was renamed Mali. Rule
by dictatorship was brought to a close in 1991 with a transitional government
and in 1992 when Mali's first democratic presidential election was held. After
his re-election in 1997, President Alpha Konare continued to push through political
and economic reforms and to fight corruption. In keeping with Mali's two-term
constitutional limit, he stepped down in 2002 and was succeeded by Amadou Toure.
|
| Geography: | The
low-lying featureless terrain of Mali is dominated in the north by the virtually
uninhabited Saharan plains of Tanezrouft and Taoudenni. The river Niger flows
northeast to the Guinean border in the southwest, irrigating the semiarid savannah
and forming a fertile inland delta in the central and southern regions. |
