- published: 09 Mar 2014
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A Commune is the third level administrative unit in Mali. Mali is divided into eight regions and one capital district (Bamako). These subdivisions bear the name of their principal city. The regions are divided into 49 Cercles. The Cercles and the district are divided into 703 Communes, with 36 Urban Communes and 667 Rural Communes, while some larger Cercles still contain Arrondissements above the Commune level, these are organisational areas with no independent power or office. Rural Communes are subdivided in Villages, while Urban Communes are subdivided into Quartier (wards or quarters). Communes usually bear the name of their principal town. The capital, Bamako, consists of six Urban Communes. There were initially 701 communes until the Law No. 001-041 of 7 June 2005 created two new Rural Communes in the desert region in the north east of the country: Alata, Ménaka Cercle in the Gao Region and Intadjedite, Tin-Essako Cercle in the Kidal Region.
Not every built up area (which might be described as a town) is a Commune, and not every Commune (especially Rural Communes) contains a large town. In most cases where towns and Communes coincide, Commune borders extend beyond built up areas and are, like the Communes of France on which they were based during the colonial period, an administrative structure. Unlike French Communes, they are not the lowest level administrative structure of the nation.
Mali i/ˈmɑːli/, officially the Republic of Mali (French: République du Mali, French pronunciation: [maˈli]), is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with a population of 14.5 million. Its capital is Bamako. Mali consists of eight regions and its borders on the north reach deep into the middle of the Sahara, while the country's southern part, where the majority of inhabitants live, features the Niger and Sénégal rivers. The country's economic structure centers around agriculture and fishing. Some of Mali's natural resources are gold, uranium, livestock, and salt. About half the population live below the international poverty line of US$1.25 a day.
Present-day Mali was once part of three West African empires that controlled trans-Saharan trade: the Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire (from which Mali is named), and the Songhai Empire. In the late 19th century, during the Scramble for Africa, France seized control of Mali making it a part of French Sudan. French Sudan (then known as the Sudanese Republic) joined with Senegal in 1959, achieving independence in 1960 as the Mali Federation. Shortly thereafter, following Senegal's withdrawal from the federation, the Sudanese Republic declared itself the independent Republic of Mali. After a long period of one-party rule, a 1991 coup led to the writing of a new constitution and the establishment of Mali as a democratic, multi-party state. On 22 March, 2012, a group of junior soldiers seized control of the country's presidential palace and declared the government dissolved and its constitution suspended. On 6 April, 2012, rebels from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) declared the secession of a new state, Azawad, from Mali.