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Basic facts about Senegal

(wikipedia.org)
Updated: 2009-09-01 15:57

Senegal (French: le Sénégal), officially the Republic of Senegal, is a country south of the Sénégal River in western Africa. Senegal is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Mauritania to the north, Mali to the east, and Guinea and Guinea-Bissau to the south.

Flag of Senegal

Coat of arms of Senegal

Its size is almost 197,000 km² with an estimated population of nearly 11,700,000. Gambia lies almost entirely within Senegal, surrounded by it on the north, east and south; from its western coast, Gambia's territory follows the Gambia River more than 300 kilometres (186 miles) inland.

Dakar is the capital city of Senegal, located on the Cape Verde Peninsula on the country's Atlantic coast. About a third of the population live below the international poverty line of US$1.25 a day.