The Sassandra River is a river of western

Côte d'Ivoire Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mau ...

. It is formed by the confluence of the Tienba River, which originates in the highlands of northwestern Côte d'Ivoire, and the

Gouan River Antoine Gouan (15 November 1733 – 1 September 1821) was a French naturalist who was a native of Montpellier. Gouan was a pioneer of Linnaean taxonomy in France. He began his studies in Toulouse, later returning to Montpellier, where he studied ...

(also known as the Bafing Sud River), which originates to the west in the highlands of Guinea. The Sassandra flows south-southeast to empty into the

Gulf of Guinea The Gulf of Guinea is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean from Cape Lopez in Gabon, north and west to Cape Palmas in Liberia. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian (zero degrees latitude and longitude) is in the ...

on the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Afr ...

. The

Buyo Dam The Buyo Dam is an embankment dam on the Sassandra River in the Bas-Sassandra district of Côte d'Ivoire. Completed in 1980, it has a hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water p ...

was constructed across the middle stretch of the river in 1980, just below the confluence with the Nzo River, to create the reservoir called Lake Buyo. The Davo River joins the Sassandra just before it meets the sea. The

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as ...

town of Sassandra lies on the seacoast where the river meets the sea. The Sassandra and its tributaries flow through terrestrial

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas o ...

s. The northern, or upper, part of the watershed lies in the

Guinean forest-savanna mosaic Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...

ecoregion. Further south, it forms the boundary between two tropical moist forest ecoregions, the Western Guinean lowland forests and the Eastern Guinean forests."Western Guinean lowland forests." World Wildlife Fund. Accessed 7 October 2015

/ref>

References

Rivers of Ivory Coast {{IvoryCoast-river-stub