Ségou

Town and port on the River Niger in central Mali; population (1993 est) 85,000. It is the administrative centre of the Ségou region, and the marketing centre for an irrigated farming region in which cotton, rice, millet, and groundnuts are produced. Industries include cotton textiles and processed food.

In the 17th and 18th centuries Ségou was the capital of Bambara state; it was occupied by the French in 1890, and in 1932 the French set up a major irrigation project.