Mali is not the place to go for safaris, wild animals, or natural forests. What it

Unfortunately Mali is rapidly being swallowed up by the desert, and is still suffering the aftershocks of a drought of biblical proportions accompanied by the full chapter and verse in plague, pestilence and famine. This has made it one of the five poorest countries in the world with a high infant mortality rate, extensive malnutrition, low levels of literacy, and a short life expectancy. Malians, by nature and circumstance, are a stoic and enduring people and the passion for their homeland and traditional way of life may have finally paid off with the discovery of deposits of gold potentially huge enough to lift the country from its economic doldrums.

Travellers are advised to avoid the Mauritanian border regions and the remote north and east of the country, as they are the domain of desert bandits.