Côte d'Ivoire–Mali border

Colonial districts

French Sudan and Côte d’Ivoire were both part of French West Africa from its creation in 1895. A decree of 17 October 1899 took Bouna, Kong and Odienné from the Sudan and gave them to Côte d’Ivoire. In 1902 the governor-general adjusted the line between the Sikasso and Bandama districts by moving three villages from one side to the other.^[1]

The Sudan was renamed several times, becoming Upper Senegal and Niger with its capital at Bamako in 1904 and French Sudan again in 1920. Côte d’Ivoire declared independence on 7 August 1960, and the Sudanese Republic took the name Mali on 19 September 1960.^[1]

“…so as to assign the village of Kankougou (Follona of N’Gokho) to the Cercle of Sikasso and the villages of Katogho and Kamene (Follona of M’Bengue) to the Cercle of Bandama.”^[1]

River after river

From the Burkina Faso tripoint the line follows a string of small rivers west: the Danboro, Kafonrako and Lofoon, then about 100 km up the Bagoé, then the Kobani, Babani, Banifing and Degou. Between rivers it crosses low hills and ridges, and it ends up the Baoulé and its headstreams at the Guinea tripoint.^[1]

The US State Department had tried since 1960 to get the official decrees behind the line from Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and France, without success, and neither country had said what it considered the boundary to be. In 1979 there were no known disputes over it.^[1]

The line today

The tripoints with Guinea and Burkina Faso are only 270 km apart, but the border twists for 640 km between them, mostly along rivers. Inherited from a vaguely described internal line of French West Africa, it has not been delimited or marked in more detail since independence, as far as has been reported.^[2]