Mali Village

The comforting sounds of music, and the local women and children talking as chores are being done. Small birds fly from tree to tree. Occasionally, pots and pans can be heard as mothers call their children in for lunch. Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali is bordered by Algeria to the north, Niger to the east, Burkin Faso and Côte d'Ivoire to the south, Guinea to the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania to the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 square kilometres (480,000 sq mi) with a population of 14.5 million. Its capital is Bamako.