A territorial dispute with Mali was mediated by Ghana and Nigeria, which has led to lessening of tensions between the two nations.

The 2012 Tuareg rebellion has left Northern Mali without official money transfer service for months.

In some Muslim-majority nations, such as Albania, Turkey, Jordan, Indonesia or Mali, same-sex intercourse is not forbidden by law, and in Albania there has been discussions of legalizing same-sex marriage.

Ramtane Lamamra, the African Union's peace and security commissioner, said the African Union has discussed sending a military force to reunify Mali and that negotiations with terrorists had been ruled out but negotiations with other armed factions is still open.

Mali has one of the world's highest rates of infant mortality, with 106 deaths per 1, 000 live births.

Mali has since 1994 when law allowed for private ( as in non-state ) radios to begin operating.

Recently an association has been formed called AFIM ( Association de Fournisseurs de l ' Internet au Mali ), which is intended to represent these providers.

Mali has only one railroad, including 729 kilometers in Mali, which runs from the port of Koulikoro via Bamako to the border with Senegal and continues on to Dakar.

The Bamako-Dakar line, which has been described as dilapidated, is owned by a joint company established by Mali and Senegal in 1995, with the eventual goal of privatization.

Mali has no seaports because it is landlocked, but Koulikoro on the Niger River near Bamako, serves as a principal river port.

Traditionally, Abidjan in Côte d ’ Ivoire has been Mali ’ s main seaport, handling as much as 70 percent of Mali ’ s trade ( except for gold exports ).

Mali apparently has six military regions, according to Jane's World Armies.

Mali is one of four Saharan states which has created a Joint Military Staff Committee, to be based at Tamanrasset in southern Algeria.

Although Azawad, a region spanning the expansive north of Mali, was proclaimed independent in April 2012 by Tuareg rebels, Mali has not recognised the de facto state.

Britain has closed its embassy ; ECOWAS has declared an embargo against Mali, aiming to squeeze out Malinese oil supplies ; closed Mali's assets in the ECOWAS regional bank and has prepared a potential intervention force of 3, 000 troops.

Mali established its embassy in Canada in 1978 at 50 avenue Golburn in Ottawa, with its 1st appointed ambassador Zana Ousmane Dao, while Canada's embassy in Mali has been open since 1995.

Mali has a longstanding relationship with France, its former colonial ruler, but relations have been described as ambivalent rather than close.

Russia has an embassy in Bamako, and Mali has an embassy in Moscow.

* Mali 1, 000 km,

The state operated radio, is ORTM ( office de Radiodiffusion au Television de Mali ), which operates 2 FM stations and 1 television station, with repeaters throughout the country.

This is followed by Chad to the east ( 1 175 km ), Algeria to the northnorthwest ( 956 km ), and Mali at 821 km.

The irrigation potential was estimated at 1. 68m ha in Nigeria 0. 56m ha in Mali, and the actual irrigated area was 0. 67m ha and 0. 19m ha.

Mali 18. 4 %, France 8. 9 %, Italy 5. 8 %, India 5. 6 % The Gambia 5. 1 % ( 2007 est )

* 1, 240, 192 km < sup > 2 </ sup > -- Mali ( country ranked 23rd by area )

July 6 saw the Methodist Relief and Development Fund ( MRDF ) aid experts say that more than 1, 500, 000 Nigerians were at risk of famine due to a month long heat wave that was hovering over Niger, Mali, Mauritania and Morocco.

At about 1. 2 million square kilometers, Mali is comparable in size to South Africa and is almost twice the size of the US state of Texas.

Mali shares a total of 7, 243 kilometers of land boundaries with seven bordering states: Algeria ( 1, 376 kilometers ) to the north and northeast, Niger ( 821 kilometers ) to the east, Burkina Faso ( 1, 000 kilometers ) to the southeast, Côte d ’ Ivoire ( 532 kilometers ) to the south, Guinea ( 858 kilometers ) to the southwest, and Senegal ( 419 kilometers ) and Mauritania ( 2, 237 kilometers ) to the west.

The Niger ( with 1, 693 kilometers in Mali ) and Senegal are Mali ’ s two largest rivers.

According to estimates in 1998, only 3. 8 percent of Mali ’ s area can be classified as arable land, and less than 0. 1 percent was planted to permanent crops in that year.

Mali was estimated to have 1, 380 square kilometers of irrigated land in 1998.

It covers 4, 639, 900 square km ( 1, 791, 500 square miles ) of Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Sudan.

Kershaw was the first to play Ali Farka Toure on mainstream national radio, and the documentary they made together in Mali was the first ever to be broadcast simultaneously on Radios 1 and 4.

After the two countries split up in 1960, the flag was kept for use in Mali until March 1, 1961, when the kanaga emblem was dropped.

Drogba scored two goals in the group stage, opening the scoring in the 4 – 1 win over Benin and the first on the score sheet again in the 3 – 0 win over Mali.

He didn't score in the semi-final in which Côte d ' Ivoire has beaten Mali 1 – 0.

In March 2005, riots broke out in Bamako after Mali lost a World Cup qualifier to Togo, 2 – 1 on a last minute goal.

Mali won 4 – 1 on aggregate.

Mali won 3 – 1 on aggregate.

36 % of a Mali population were Kn ( a ) and 14 % of exhibited the null ( or Helgeson ) phenotype compared with only 1 % in the American population.

Mali had a road network totaling about 18, 563 kilometers in 2000, including about 4, 450 kilometers of paved roads.

The Đerdap gorge, which is some 100 kilometers long ( from Golubac to Tekija ), is actually a compound river valley made up of four gorges ( Gornja klisura, Gospođin vir, Veliki and Mali kazan and Sipska klisura ), separated from each other by ravines.

The dam irrigates an additional 78, 100 hectares ( 781 square kilometers ) of land in Senegal ( 54, 700 hectares ), Mauritania ( 20, 400 ha ) and Mali ( 3, 000 ha ), which actually exceeds expectations.