Bakel, Senegal

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Bakel is a town of approximately 15,000 inhabitants located in the eastern part of Senegal, West Africa. The town is located along the Sénégal River, 65 kilometers (40.6 miles) from the Malian border and linked by canoe ferry to the town of Gouray, Mauritania. It is one of the three departemental capitals in the region of Tambacounda, the other two being Tambacounda and Kedougou, located near the Guinean border. Bakel is predominantly known for its French Fort and as the home of Rene Caille, the first Western explorer to successfully visit Timbuktu. It was also the area where the Mauritanian crisis occurred, a dispute over grazing rights that led to a war between Senegal and Mauritania in 1989. As a result of this conflict, many people around the area moved abroad or emigrated to Senegal.

The majority of the population belong to the Soninke-speaking ethnic group, a dialect of the larger Mandagne-Mandinke language family. There is also a substantial Pulaar (Fula) speaking minority as well as a significant amount of Bambara and Wolof (or Oulof) speakers. While most people learn and speak French in school, they prefer to speak their local dialects to each other. A large permanent market serves the department's inhabitants along with a weekly "Lumo" (similar to a flea market). Most inhabitants are subsistence farmers and herders, while the people in town are employed in informal businesses that range from carpentry to fruit and produce selling and masonry. Due to its location in the Sahel, the area is semi-arid with little vegetation outside of the rainy season. Various hills surround the town, which are known locally as "little mountains."

Bakel is also the site of a study of annual flow volumes of the Senegal river from 1904 to 1990 which showed a dramatic reduction in the river's volume especially in the past twenty years. (A water resources planning response to climate change in the Senegal River Basin. Venema, Schiller, Adamowska, Thizzy. January 1997). See this website: Bakel Senegal