Ivory Coast–Mali border
A line of small rivers across the savanna, inherited from colonial districts of French West Africa. In 1979 the US Geographer still couldn’t get a copy of the decrees that fixed it, from either country or from France.
Written from cited sourcesLast checked 29 September 2026Suggest a correction
See it on the globe:Ivory Coast →Mali →
Colonial districts
French Sudan and Ivory Coast 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 Ivory Coast. 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. Ivory Coast 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 Ivory Coast, 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]
Timeline
More borders
Sources
- [1]International Boundary Study No. 171: Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) – Mali Boundary · US Department of State, Office of the Geographer · 26 November 1979
Map geometry from Natural Earth via world-atlas. See credits.