Independent Republic of Western Africa, Senegal is located in the geographical coordinates 14º 00′ North, 14º 00′ West, bordering on the North Atlantic Ocean, between Guinea Bissau and Mauritania. Dakar, located on the coast is the countrys capital and in the latest decades has got an especial role on international level as the finish point of the Rally Paris Dakar. The Gambia river flows into the sea in this city surrounded by desert beaches. The most western country of Africa covers a total surface of 196,200 sq km. With 2,640 km of frontiers, Senegal borders in the North on Mauritania (813 km), in the east on Mali (419 km), in the south on Guinea (330 km) and Guinea-Bissau (338 km), and in the west on the Atlantic Ocean, with a 531 km long coast. Within Senegal there is the State of Gambia sharing a border of 740 km.
The relief of Senegal looks almost like a plain with several, rather low plateaus. Its main rivers are the Senegal, Saloum and Gambia. The most important of them is the Senegal river. The coast is generally low and marshy, and it only rises to build the promontory of Cape Verde. There are four areas marking Senegals geography: the one in the west, close to Dakar is the less dry and its where most part of the population is gathered; the coast has a marked agricultural character; the inland is arid and inhabited by nomadic people and last but not least the Senegal valley, rather depopulated. It has tropical weather and the temperatures fluctuate between 21º and 26º C. Senegal is a warm and damp country during the rain season (from December to April) and there are strong winds from the south east during the dry season (from May to November), when the dry and hot winds loaded with sands dominate the region.
With 9.8 millions inhabitants and a population density of 50.1 inhabitants per sq km, Senegal is a country where several different ethnic group live together. This is due to the permanent contact between the inhabitants and the Islamic people from the north, the animists from the south and the Europeans who arrived during the colonisation. The population is mainly made up by Subanese, who include the ethnic groups of the Wolof (36%), Fulani (17%) and Serer (17%), and also but less the Toucouleus, Diola and Mandingo. There are also European, Lebanese and Syrian minorities in Senegal. Its yearly growth rate is of 2.5% and the average life expectancy is of 49 years. The birth rate is of 45.46 births per 1,000 population and infant mortality is of 64 death for every 1,000 born alive. The official language is French, but Wolof, Pulaar, Diola and Mandingo is also spoken. 67% of the population cannot write nor ready. Most of them are Muslims (92%), although there are also native religions (6%) and Christians (2%).
The agriculture is poor and the main product are peanuts. Other sources of income are cattle raising and fishing, which is especially important. Phosphates, iron and titanium are extracted from the soil. The industry is rather modest. The railway network has 904 km and of the 13,850 km of roads, only 3,900 are asphalted. Sea communications are secured by the ports of Dakar, Kaolack, Matam, Podor, Richard-Toll, Saint-Louis and Ziguinchor, as well as through the almost 900 km of channels, 700 in the Senegal river and 200 in the Saloum river.
The official currency is the CFA Franc, which is about 0,002¬. The yearly per capita income is of 1,600 dollars, in a country where inflation reaches 2.2%. Senegals foreign debt amounts to 3.8 thousand million dollar while its GDP is of 14.5 thousand million dollars. In 1994 Senegal carried out its deepest structural reform, making use of the 50% devaluation affecting the currencies of 14 nations of French-Speaking Africa. After many years of poverty, the government liberalized the working regulations, which should have reduced costs and improved competitiveness in the sector of manufactured products. Fiscal deficits where eliminated, some monopolies and some companies were privatised. At the same time the fiscal expenditure policy was kept, closely supervised by the international organisations that help Senegal to subsist. The IMF, announced in mid-1995, that the government was accomplishing almost all objectives of the plan to the Improvement of Structural Adjustments and handed over the second 50 million dollars of the loan. The little resources of the country, the degradation of the environment and the enormous increase of the population are a brake for the improvement of the living conditions in the medium term.
The first information on Senegal dates back to some 500 years BC, when Berbers and black people lived in these regions. From modern times it is known that it was part of the Empires of Shongai, Ghana and Mali (14th and 15th century). Colonisation began early in Senegal, because the Portuguese arrived already in the 15th century, settling in the coast, but were replaced by the French in the 17th century. Except for Goreé Island, all French establishments went to the English in 1763. They were given back to France twenty-years later, taken back by the English during the war of the Consulate and the Empire and eventually given definitively back to France in 1817. In 1895 it became part of French Western Africa and in 1958 Senegal gained its autonomy for internal affairs. It joined together with Sudan to create the Mali Confederation, but in September 1960, they decided to retire proclaiming the Independent Republic with Leopoldo Senghor as the first president of the State. Senghor stayed in the presidency during the 20 years to follow. The constitution was approved on March 3rd, 1963 and was revised later.
Its foreign policy has been dominated by the relationship with Gambia, the country it surrounds. During the 80s, these relationships fluctuated between a total rapprochement that took to the project for the Confederation of Senegambia, and armed conflicts. This distancing increased after the military coup in Gambia, in 1994. In 1989, the economical and ethnic confrontations that involved a large part of the population of southern Mauritania and northern Senegal, leading to the death of hundreds of people, took to a fast and drastic deterioration of the relationship between Senegal and Mauritania. The armed confrontations and the following breaking of diplomatic relations between both countries ended in 1992. Another point of tension in latest years is the territorial dispute between Senegal and Guinea Bissau, over a sea portion rich in finishing resources and a potential presence of oil.
The type of government in the country is a multi-party, presidential type democratic republic. The president is elected for a period of seven years by means of universal vote of those aged 18 and over. The current head of state is Abdoulaye Wade.
