Russia Having Some Pains Down in Africa

<![CDATA[It's been three years since the last time I wrote anything about the West African country of Mali, one of the nations in the swath of North Africa running latitudinally known as 'the Sahel.' It is the biogeographical zone where the transition begins from the African savannas mid-continent to the drier coastal plains and the Sahara in the north. ]]>