Travel Guide Kidal

350 km north of Gao, Kidal is the head of the eighth region of Mali, the northernmost in the country. The city has developed much since it became the capital of the region with water, electricity and the Internet. She has attracted many nomads, but there is little work and so they are unhappy. Kidal was created at the end of the Tuareg rebellion in 1991, and has much more autonomy than others. The population really takes part in local politics. After the end of the first rebellion and before the beginning of the second, in 1962, a large Malian military contingent resided in Kidal, where political prisoners were sent. This region has always been the most isolated and inhospitable region in Mali: a desert territory in the far north where nothing grows and few people go (at least voluntarily). Today, calm has not returned to the region. Acts of banditry and armed combat are regularly reported and the area is dangerous for the tourist. However, it is the place of residence of several predominantly nomadic populations: Tuareg, Moors and Arabs. Outside the small town of Kidal, the population is surrounded by wadis, oases and pastoral wells. Economic activities focus on livestock and crafts. The Kidal region has beautiful sites that are only visited by archaeologists, ethnologists and geologists. This area houses Paleolithic and Neolithic sites, cave engravings and ruins of medieval towns. All this bears witness to the intense prehistoric and medieval activity in this region, which is now inhospitable.