For the last six months, troops from Mauritania and Mali have been seeking out and killing al Qaeda members hiding in the Wagadou Forest (actually a thousand hectares/2,500 acres of brush and treehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifs in a semi-desert area), which lies astride the border. Al Qaeda has apparently been there since early last year. The Wagadou Forest has become a way station for cocaine and hashish al Qaeda escorts from Guinea-Bissau to the Mediterranean coast. This, and kidnap ransoms, is how al Qaeda finances itself in West Africa these days.
map here.
I didn't know that there was a "forested" area (scrub bushes) in that area, but it has a long ancient history. as the home of the ancient Ghanhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifa empire.
The Ghana Empire or Wagadou Empire[1] (existed before c. 830 until c. 1235) was located in what is now southeastern Mauritania, and Western Mali. Complex societies had existed in the region since about 1500 BCE, and around Ghana's core region since about 300 CE. When Ghana's ruling dynasty began is uncertain, it is first mentioned in documentary sources around 830 CE by Al-Kwarizmi.[2] The introduction of the camel, which preceded Muslims and Islam by several centuries, brought about a gradual change in trade, and for the first time, the extensive gold, ivory trade, and salt resources of the region could be sent north and east to population centers in North Africa, the Middle East and Europe in exchange for manufactured goods.
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