Gao

Region

Gao (Arabic: Kaukau ) is a city in Mali. She was from 2012 until January 26, 2013 the capital of the unrecognized state Azawad. On this day liberated French and Malian troops since June 2012 occupied by Islamists city as part of Opération Serval.

Gao is located in the northeast of the country 226 m above sea level on the left bank of the Niger. Gao has 86 633 inhabitants ( census 2009) and is the capital of the Gao region.

Gao is famous for the red dunes of koyma that lies directly in Gao on the Niger other shore. She is from the back rather flat and falls on the front page steep and straight into the river Niger. You can walk on it. She is one of the natural landmarks of the city Gao.

A crossroads of important trade routes, the city developed as a center of trade, especially the trans-Saharan trade.

Northern Mali Gao and Kidal with today forms a hub of drug smuggling from South America to Europe. Conspicuous was in November 2009 when a Venezuelan Boeing 727 was set on fire in the desert at Sinkrebaka near Bourem, approximately 200 km north of Gao, ended up with tons of cocaine on board and after removal of the drug.

History

Gao was the capital of attested from the 9th century Gao empire in the 15th and 16th centuries, the Songhai Eich. Here is the recorded in the Weltkulturbe Tomb of Askia Muhammad.

In November 2007, proposed a series of assassination attempts fail on the governor of the region, and several other officials. Since then, the town was considered threatened by rebel attacks.

March 31, 2012 took the Tuareg fighters Gao, Kidal as the day before, a. Gao was appointed after the declaration of independence of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad ( MNLA ) to the capital of the new state Azawad. On June 28, 2012, the MNLA by the Islamist rebel group Ansar Dine from Gao was expelled. Ansar Dine and the movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa ( MUJAO ) tried since then to enforce Sharia law in Gao. Malian soldiers have recaptured with the support of the French military as well as from Niger and Chad, the city of Gao on January 26, 2013 the Islamists.

Transport links

Gao is located at the eastern end of the National Road 15 and at the beginning of the National Road 17, that connects towards Niamey in Niger. The city is also the starting point of the Tanezrouftpiste, a trans-Saharan route north to the Algerian border and on to Reggane. To the east of Gao is a small airport with IATA code GAQ

Climate

Overall fall in Gao in 260 mm of precipitation at an average temperature of 27 ° C. The coldest is in January with about 22 ° C and the warmest in May ( about 35 ° C).

It falls very little rainfall. Although he reached in August to a peak of about 100 mm, but is over 10 months significantly below what would evaporate and thus arid. In 5 months, even no rain falls.

Sister City

• France Thionville