Bobo-Dioulasso

Bobo-Dioulasso is Burkina Faso's second-largest city after the capital Ouagadougou, in Houet Province in the country's southwest, with a population of 1,129,000 as of 2023. Founded as Sia in the fifteenth century, it grew into an important link in West African trade networks connecting the Niger Delta to the Gold Coast before France occupied it in 1897 and made it a colonial administrative post. After independence it became known as the country's economic capital on the strength of agricultural commerce and textile manufacturing, and though its relative standing next to Ouagadougou has declined, it has grown again since 2000 with migration from Ivory Coast and renewed government investment.