The Falémé River ( French: ''Rivière Falémé'') is a river in

West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

. The Falémé arises in northern

Guinea Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...

and flows in a north-northeast direction to

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

, forming a short portion of the

border Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...

between

and

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

. It turns north and then forms a portion of the

between

and

, before joining the Sénégal River 50 km upstream of the town of Bakel in Senegal.

Description

The Falémé River is around 650 km in length and drains a basin of 28,900 km². Its source is in the northern part of the

Fouta Djallon Fouta Djallon (, , ; ) is a Highland (geography), highland region in the center of Guinea, roughly corresponding with Middle Guinea, in West Africa. Etymology The Fulani people call the region Fouta Jallon Kingdom, Fuuta-Jaloo ( ) in the Pular l ...

highlands at an altitude of 800 m. Most of the rainfall on the highlands occurs between May and October as a result of the West African Monsoon. August is normally the wettest month. The flow of the river is highly seasonal, with the maximum occurring during September and very little flow between December and June. The average annual discharge of the river over the period 1904-1984 was 6.59 km³.

Mining

There are iron ore deposits in Senegal near the headwaters of this river. More recently there has been a gold rush around the village of Diabougou in Senegal and very near the Mali border. Erzlagerstätten_Faleme.jpg, Iron ore deposits in the Falémé River region of Senegal, 1981. ASC Leiden - F. van der Kraaij Collection - 20 - 048 - Deux hommes font sécher des vêtements lavés sur la rive de la Falémé - Frontière sénégalo-malienne, 1984.tiff, Two men are drying their washed clothes on a bank of the Falémé River at the Mali-Senegal border, 1984. ASC Leiden - F. van der Kraaij Collection - 20 - 049 - Rivière Falémé avec des buissons et des arbres bas - Frontière sénégalo-malienne, 1984.tiff, The Falémé River with bushes on its banks at the Mali-Senegal border, 1984. STS112-E-6197 - View of Senegal.jpg, The Falémé River in Senegal near the Mali border photographed from space by Space Shuttle Mission

STS-112 STS-112 (ISS assembly sequence, ISS assembly flight 9A) was an 11-day Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by . Space Shuttle ''Atlantis'' was launched on 7 October 2002 at 19:45 UTC from the Kennedy Space Center's ...

, October 2002. Straßenbrücke bei Kidira.jpg, Two young pedestrians cross the road bridge from Mali to Kidira, Senegal. Left the ford in the river Falémé, 2017.

References

Rivers of Guinea Rivers of Mali Rivers of Senegal Senegal River International rivers of Africa Mali–Senegal border Guinea–Senegal border Border rivers {{Senegal-river-stub