- Here are some key facts about Mali, which is experiencing severe food shortages following drought and locust invasions in 2004:
* Mali is twice the size of France, its former colonial master, from which it won independence in 1960. Nearly half the country lies in the Sahara desert but the Niger, Africa's third longest river, irrigates a fertile plain across the south.
* Mali was once the heart of an ancient empire based on trans-Saharan trade through the legendary city of Timbuktu. Now one the world's most impoverished countries, average annual income was $290 in 2003, according to the World Bank.
* Agricultural production fell by 42 percent in 2005 because of drought and locust invasions in 2004. The World Food Programme estimates that some 450,000 people are in need of food aid.
* It is sub-Saharan Africa's third biggest gold producer after South Africa and Ghana, and West Africa's biggest cotton producer. Bauxite, copper, iron ore, manganese, tin and uranium have been found but not yet mined, due to poor infrastructure.
* Around 85 percent of its estimated 11 million people are Muslim, the rest are animist or Christian. The main ethnic groups are Bambara, Fulani, Malinke, Marka, Tuareg, Senoufo, Songhai and Dogon. Life expectancy is about 50 years.
* Its current leader, Amadou Toumani Toure, is a former soldier who toppled a dictatorship in 1991 then won praise at home and abroad for ushering in multiparty politics. He won the presidency in an election in May 2002.
* Mali, a favourite with Western donors who see it as a democratic example to other African states, suffered sporadic violence during the 1990s because of a rebellion by Tuareg nomads in the north.
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