Sudan (region) to the present-day country of Sudan, the western part of which forms part of the larger region, and from which South Sudan gained its independence in 2011. The Sudan region extends in some 5,000 km in a band several hundred kilometers wide across Africa. It stretches from the border of Senegal, through southern Mali (formerly known as French Sudan when it was a French colony), Burkina Faso, southern Niger, northern Nigeria, northern Ghana, southern Chad, the western Darfur region of present-day Sudan, and South Sudan. To the north of the region lies the Sahel, a more arid Acacia savanna region
French Colonial Union French Colonial Union The French Colonial Union () was a group of French merchants established for the purpose of ensuring continued French colonialism, as well as solidifying their own commercial interests. It was founded in 1893 and published "The Colonial Fortnightly" ("La Quinzaine coloniale"). The French Colonial Union served as a pivotal colonial organization that greatly aided in commercial and foreign French affairs. Though from its initial establishment, the French Colonial Union was never major, its members set out with a mindset of expressing its ideas, being vocal, and then placing those ideas into reality. The foundations of the French