Geography of Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso borders six countries. To the north and west, with Mali; to the east, with Niger; to the south, with Ghana; to the southeast, with Togo and Benin, and to the southwest, with the Ivory Coast. The country lies in the interior of the Sahel, between the Gulf of Guinea and the Sahara desert, south of the great arc of the Niger River. The center of the country, once Upper Volta, is characterized by its large expanses of savannah, which lie at an altitude of between 200 and 300 m. To the south, the land is green, with forests and fruit trees, and the north, especially the northeast, becomes a desert. Burkina's game reserves - the most important being the Arli National Park, the Nazinga Reserve and the W National Park - are home to lions, elephants, hippos, monkeys, warthogs and antelopes, although tourism is not very developed in this area. sense.

Relief

Nahouri Pico.

Satellite image of Burkina Faso in which progressive desertization to the north is appreciated.

Topography of Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso is a flat country. The difference between the maximum and minimum altitudes is less than 600 m. The average altitude of the country is less than 400 m and most of it is between 250 and 300 m. In any case, the plain is not homogeneous. Two domains are distinguished in it:

The peneplain, integrated within the Precambrian massif, occupies three quarters of the country. It is monotonous, made up of grassy undulations and wide valleys of little relevance, with the only glimpse from time to time of an isolated group of aligned hills that rise tens of meters above the plain. The lower parts are composed of granites or plinth gneiss, consolidated by erosion. The hills, remains of new Birrimian (Paleoproterozoic) sedimentary series, are made up of schists and greywackes (sandstones with more than 15% matrix)) or quartzarenites, with more than 95% quartz. At the end of the Birrimian orogeny, postectonic granite intrusions were produced, giving rise to some granitic witness hills and there are even some armored tabular hills.

The sandstone massif occupies the southwestern part of the country. It is the highest and most rugged region of Burkina. It culminates in the Tena Kourou, 749 m high, on the border with Mali. The entire region is made up of a sedimentary cover of primary sandstones that abruptly end in a cliff that has two different shapes:

• From the region of Bobo-Diulaso to Banfora, the cliff, rectilinear, has a height of 150 m, oriented from NE to SW. To the south, the cliff changes shape, takes an E to W orientation and even SW to NW between Beregadugú and the border of Mali. Here it is no longer rectilinear, and it is swelled by valleys that isolate the promontories.

• In the southeast, sandstone sediments form a small massif of SW-NE direction to the borders of Togo and Benin. It is the chain of Gobnangou, between Arli and Kaabugou. It is about 80 km long and an average height of 365 m. While in the south descends forming hills, in the north ends on a cliff of a hundred meters.

Hydrography

Burkina Faso's hydrographic network is relatively important, considering the low rainfall. The rivers are divided into three basins:

Volta River Basin in Burkina Faso and Ghana

The Volta river basin. It is the most important. It occupies the center and west of the country and has an area of 120,000 km². It is formed by the basins of four main rivers, which change their names when they cross the border:

The Mouhoun River (Lease Muhun), near Dédougou (lease Dedugou), in Burkina Faso

• The river Mouhoun o Black Volta crosses western Burkina from Mali to Ghana. It is born on the north side of the Cascadas region, where rainfall exceeds 1000 mm, and is heading north-northwest, but when it is near the border of Mali, it is located with the Sourou River, which was its former basin, and turns roughly south, captured by a lower basin, and is headed to Ghana. Once in Ghana he receives Nakambé and Pendjari and becomes the Volta River.

• The river Nazinon o Red Volta is born near Ouagadougou and flows 320 km to flow into the White Volta.

• The river Nakambé o Volta Blanco is born on the border of Mali, north of the country, in the vicinity of Uahiguya, where rainfall is 600 to 700 mm, passes east of Ouagadougou, receives water from several lakes, such as the Bam and Dem, and it continues south to enter Ghana, where it receives the Nazinon (old Red Volta), which came parallel to it west of Ouagadougou, and flows into the Maouhoun. After the Akosombo reservoir in Ghana, the river is called Volta.

The Oti River in the Pendjari National Park

• The river Pendjari, known as Oti when passing through Togo and Ghana, is born in the Atakora Mountains in Benin. Travel to the north, turn to the west and during a stretch it serves as a border between Benin and south-east Burkina Faso, where it serves as a limit to the National Parks of Arli and Pendjari. It receives here the waters of the massif of Gobnangou, although the most abundant rainfall occurs in the time of rains in the chain of Atakora and in Benin, causing its flow to increase extraordinarily, from 10 to 1900 m3/s, between January and September. Turn left onto the large Volta Lake.

The Comoé river basin, with an area of 18,000 km², in the southwest of the country, originates on the southern slopes of the Cascades region, on the cliffs of Banfora, where it forms the Karfiguéla waterfalls. The first part of its journey to the south is full of rapids and swampy areas at the foot of Banfora. Upon reaching the Ivory Coast, it receives the waters of the Léraba River, which forms the border with Burkina Faso. It continues to form a border for a hundred kilometers and enters the Ivory Coast through the Comoé National Park.

The Niger river basin, 72,000 km². The rivers that originate in the north and east of Burkina and that flow into the Niger River are of little importance due to the low rainfall. The Sirba to the east and the Béli to the north stand out.

In addition to these basins, there are a large number of endorheic areas in which permanent or temporary swamps are formed, of great importance for grazing, especially in the drier north of the country. The wetlands of Soum, Oursi and Darkoy, in the extreme north, stand out. Due to the irregularity of rainfall, numerous reservoirs have been built in the country, including Bagré, Sourou, Kompienga and Ziga, the latter to the east of the capital, for its drinking water supply. In 2019, the Samendeni reservoir was inaugurated, the third largest in Burkina after Kompienga and Bagré, with a capacity of 2.6 MW, in the Black Volta, in the Bama department, with a 24 m high dam and 2900m in length; The reservoir is 152 km² and will irrigate some 21,000 ha.

Climate

It is determined by latitude, between 9º and 15º north latitude, and continentality, factors that make Burkina Faso a tropical country with climates that oscillate between Sudanese, in the south of the country, and Sahelian, to the north.

The seasons are conditioned by the displacement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone, which moves north in summer and determines the rainy season, which lasts about four months in the north of the country, from June to September and about six months to the south, from April to October. During the dry season, the harmattan prevails, a northeasterly continental wind from the Sahara, which dries the land.

The climatic regions of Burkina Faso differ progressively from south to north, becoming drier as they move away from the Gulf of Guinea.

• The south belongs to the Sudanese type climate, with rains ranging from 900 to 1300 mm, with a maximum in the southwest end and precipitation for six months.
• The Sudanese-Sahelian area (11th to 13th latitude N) is located between the isoyets of 900 and 600 mm, is the most extensive and occupies the entire center of the country, with rains between May and September.
• The Sahelian area occupies the fourth part of Burkina, north of the country, between 600 and 300 mm per year. Rains can occur at any time and can be intense, accompanied by strong winds.

Temperatures oscillate between an absolute minimum of 5 °C in Banankeledaga, in 1971, and an absolute maximum of 46 °C in Markoye, in April 1980, but the averages throughout the year deviate little from the 25 °C average daily, with a maximum in March and after the rains, and a minimum in June and December-January. The minimum ranges between 10 and 20 °C and the maximum between 35 and 40 °C, with an increase in the diurnal oscillation in the Sahelian zone.

In recent years, climate change and the disappearance of vegetation by human means are causing a decrease in precipitation throughout the country, with a more irregular distribution than previously. The temperatures tend to be more extreme in their maximums and minimums.

Protected areas of Burkina Faso

Region W at the meeting of the river Niger with the river Mekrou. The entire complex is part of the W-Arly-Pendjari Biosphere Cross-Border Reserve

In Burkina Faso there are 41,158 km² of protected land. There are 3 national parks, which together cover 5,343 km²; 4 fauna reserves, covering 2,977 km², 1 nature sanctuary, 450 km²; 1 bird reserve of 192 km² and 60 classified forests, which cover the rest.

• Burkina Faso's W National Park, 2,350 km2, created in 1954, a Ramsar site in 1990 and a biosphere reserve in 2002. It is part of a cross-border complex that includes the Beninese W National Park (5.020 km2) and the Niger W National Park (7,280 km2). The three are part of a much larger complex known as W Region or W National Park, for its form in W following a meander of the Niger River. Since 2008 it is known as W Transborder Park or, in French, Regional Park W. It had its beginning in 1954 with the national park of W created in Niger. It currently covers almost 15 000 km2. Elephants, lions, hippos, etc. It is the southern boundary of the hinged savannah, but the most remarkable are wetlands, since it is a Ramsar site since 2005, and it is part of a much larger area that extends to the southwest, the Transboundary Reserve of the W-Arly-Pendjari Biosphere.

• Kaboré Tambi National Park, 2,427 km2, is located in the course of the Nazinon River, affluent of the Red Volta, between Ouagadougou and the border with Ghana. Under-Sahelian weather savannah. Elephants, antelopes, jackals, hyenas, etc.

• Deux Balés National Park, 566 km2, in the east center, west of the Black Volta River. Granite plain undulating with giant baobabs, Anogeissus leiocarpa, Isoberlinia doka and other savannah trees; elephants, hippos, antelopes, crocodiles, etc.

• Integral Arli Fauna Reserve, 760 km2, often called Arli National Park, in the southeast, has continuity in Pendjari National Park, in Benin and is part of the W-Arly Pendjari Complex.

The W-Arly-Pendjari Transboundary Biosphere Reserve, or W-Arly Pendjari Complex, consists of two core regions, the W National Park to the northeast, and the Arli Integral Fauna Reserve and the Pendjari National Park, southwest. Add to this 16 reserves, partial reserves and hunting areas giving a total of 32,250 km² between the three countries, of which 17,150 km² is a continuous mosaic of 9 areas if the Koakrana hunting areas are added to the parks. and Kourtiagou, in Burkina Faso, and Konkombri and Mékrou, in Benin. The entire reserve is threatened by population growth and agricultural development.

Population

Main cities

The main cities of Burkina Faso are shown below, with the population recorded on December 9, 2006, and with the code of the region to which they belong:

Ethnic groups of Burkina Faso

In 2019, the population in Burkina Faso is estimated at 20.3 million inhabitants, with rapid growth, since in 2006 there were 14 million inhabitants, divided into some 26 ethnic groups. Half of Burkinabe's inhabitants are ethnic Mossi, descendants of warriors who moved from the Volta River area around 1100 AD and formed an empire that lasted for some 800 years.

The ethnic composition of Burkina is as follows: Mossi (50-52%), Fulani (8-9%), Bobo (5-6%), Gurma (5.8%), Mandinka Bissa (3.5 -5%), Senufo (4.3-4.5%), Gurunsi (4.8%), Lobi (2.5-4.7%), Tuareg (2.5%), Dagara (2.4 %) and others (4.5%).

More than 65% of the population is under 25 years of age and the population is growing by 3% per year. This rapid growth is due to the decrease in mortality, especially infant mortality, due to an improvement in sanitary conditions and the maintenance of an average of 6 children per woman. Hundreds of thousands of people migrate each year to Ghana and the Ivory Coast for seasonal jobs. On the other hand, Burkina welcomes immigrants from the Ivory Coast, Ghana and Mali. Tens of thousands of refugees have arrived from the latter country because of the war.