Mali

Overview

Mali

Landlocked and bordered by seven countries, Mali stretches from the Sahara Desert in the north to savanna in the south. It covers about 1.24 million km² and has about 25.2 million people. Bamako is the capital. The Niger River crosses the south and center, where its seasonal flooding forms the Inner Niger Delta, and most of the population lives in the southern savanna. The region was the center of the Ghana, Mali, and Songhai empires, which controlled trans-Saharan trade. Under the Mali Empire, which peaked in the fourteenth century, Timbuktu and Djenné became centers of trade and Islamic learning. France colonized the territory as French Sudan, and Mali became independent in 1960. Amid this insecurity, the military seized power in 2020 and again in 2021, and Assimi Goïta, who led both coups, has headed the government since. In 2025, political parties were dissolved, and a law granted him a renewable five-year presidential term without an election. Under the 2023 constitution, 13 national languages are official, and French is a working language. Bambara is the most widely spoken. Islam is the religion of about 96% of the population.

Mali is a low-income country. Gold accounts for about 80% of exports, cotton is the main export crop, and lithium has recently emerged as a new export. Agriculture employs about 63% of the workforce. In 2025, Mali’s GDP per capita was approximately US$1,193, and real GDP grew by 5.6%.

Source: World Bank. (2026). World Development Indicators, from https://data.worldbank.org/country/mali