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Senegal: Senegal River
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The sources of the Senegal River are located in Guinea and in the wetter south-western part of Mali. Total annual discharge leaving Guinea is estimated at about 8 km3, but during the dry season the rivers frequently run dry. The Falémé River forms the border between Senegal and Mali over most of its distance. By the time they reach the border point between Mali, Mauritania and Senegal, the different tributaries have become one river, the Senegal River, which then continues to form the border between Senegal and Mauritania. The Karakoro River, flowing into the Senegal River at more or less the same point, originates in Mauritania. The annual discharge of the Senegal River at Bakel is 20 km . The Gorgol River, originating in Mauritania, joins it about 200 km downstream.
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Senegal is primarily an agricultural country, but industry in the cities, especially Dakar, is growing. The principal food crops are millet, cassava, sorghum, rice, corn, and pulses. Peanuts are the chief cash crop and the country's main agricultural export; they are grown primarily on small farms in the region between the Siné and Saloum rivers near Kaolack and Diourbel. Cotton is ... grown and there is a sizable coastal fishing industry. Large numbers of cattle, sheep, and goats are raised, although intermittent drought conditions can reduce their population. The principal minerals extracted are phosphate rock, limestone, high-grade iron ore, and gold.
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Senegal lies on West Africa's Atlantic coast. One of the first multiparty democracies in today's Africa, this river-laced land of marshes and plains was once ruled by Wolof chieftains. Three centuries of French administration ended in 1960. The moderate socialist government has initiated economic reforms. A deep natural harbor at Dakar makes the cosmopolitan city a major West African port. Peanuts from the drought-prone interior are an important export.
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In pre-colonial times, the portion of West Africa between the Senegal and Casamance Rivers emerged as an important strategic territory for vast empires intent on controlling trans-Saharan trade. Later, Gorée Island, Senegal's and Africa's western extreme, became the point of departure for the majority of West Africans forcibly exported to the Americas during the brutal era of slavery. The French began and based their West African colonial campaigns in the Senegalese port city of Saint-Louis, at the mouth of the Senegal River. Senegal's first post-Independence president, writer and intellectual Léopold Sédar Senghor, ruled for two decades, maintaining close ties to France and establishing Dakar, the Senegalese capital, as a center of commerce and culture in West Africa.
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The Senegal River valley in Mauritania is rather narrow, with the exception of two depressions in the downstream part. It is expected that with the Manantali dam about 125000 ha can be irrigated [182a]. In the present transitional period, with the dam not yet fully operational, an artificial flood is created through the dam in order to practice flood recession cropping on an area of 50000 ha at maximum. In the Gorgol and Karakoro tributary areas the irrigation potential is estimated at a maximum of 40000 ha, mainly through flood recession cropping with the construction of small earth dams [144]. This brings the total to 165000 ha. In addition there are some 2000 ha of oases in the Senegal basin area [145].
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With changes in the Government of Guinea-Bissau, tensions between Senegal and its southern neighbor have lessened significantly; ... relations with The Gambia are still tense. There are recurrent tensions with Mauritania over water rights to the Senegal River and involving ethnic populations which move across porous borders. Currently, Senegal's relations with all its neighbors are calm.
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Senegal River