French West Africa with the exception of the Senegalese Communes, the administrative structure of French rule at the lower levels remained constant, based upon the Cercle system. This was the smallest unit of French political administration in French colonial Africa that was headed by a European officer. They might range in size, but French Sudan (modern Mali) consisted of less than a dozen Cercles for most of its existence. Thus, a Cercle Commander might be the absolute authority over hundreds of thousands of Africans. A Cercle consisted of several cantons, each of which in turn consisted of several villages, and was almost universal
Boma, South Sudan Boma, South Sudan Boma, is a town in South Sudan. Boma is located in Pibor County, Boma State, in eastern South Sudan, near the border with Ethiopia. Boma was the first town captured by the Sudan People's Liberation Army at the beginning of its insurgency in 1983. The SPLA subsequently used the town's name for the lowest-level administrative division in the territory it controlled, which continues in modern-day South Sudan. More recently, the town of Boma has been at the center of the insurgency of the South Sudan Democratic Army led by David Yau Yau. A road connects Boma to