Today we head to Mali, another country I known almost nothing about, other than it’s the home of Timbuktu. Mali is an ancient landlocked country in North West Africa, and is the 8th largest county in Africa. This makes Mali slightly larger than South Africa.

Mali was recently in the news as just last week a 25 year old Malian woman somehow gave birth to nine live babies. This is a world record.

Mali has a turbulent past. After gaining independence from France in 1960s its endured droughts, civil unrest, coups, 23 years of military dictatorship and more recently a jihadist insurgency. After a military coup in 2020, Mali now plans to hold democratic elections in 2022.

The Niger River is Mali’s lifeblood. It’s also a really unusual river due to its protracted route. The River Niger starts in the Guinea Highlands and flows northeast through Mali all the way to its mouth 4,180km downstream in Nigeria. To put this in perspective, its source only 240km from the Atlantic Ocean, but the river instead runs directly away from the Atlantic Ocean into the Sahara Desert.

Mali is also home to Lake Faguibine, a lake formed by the flooding of the River Niger, however, this lake has rather dramatically disappeared leaving a vast open crater due to reduced rainfalls.

Another endangered landmark along the River Niger is Timbuktu, an ancient centre of culture and trade. Timbuktu is reportedly deteriorating as the Sahara Desert encroaches on the city. Alongside this, Mali’s precarious political situation means the city has not been able to develop into a tourist destination and raise funds for preserving the city. Timbuktu is now on the UNESCO List of World Heritage in Danger.