The town is located on the left bank of the Sénégal River, 65 kilometers (40 mi) from the Malian border and linked by canoe ferry to the village of Gouraye in Mauritania.

There is also a substantial Pulaar (Fula) speaking minority as well as a significant amount of Bambara and Wolof (or Oulof) speakers, while most people learn some French in school.

Most inhabitants are subsistence farmers and herders, while the people in town are employed in informal businesses that range from carpentry, masonry and transportation of goods to selling fruit and produce on the street.

In 1818, after the restoration of France's West Africa territories (which at the time consisted only in Saint-Louis and Gorée) in the 1815 Treaty of Paris, Auguste Jacques Nicolas Peureux de Mélay led a small flotilla up the Senegal .

[7] The fort was established to counter growing British penetration of the West African market, attracting trade in gum arabic, gold, leather, and ivory.

In the 1850s, the Bakel garrison was strengthened as Omar Saidou Tall's jihad gained strength in the region and presented over-matched local tribes with a way to undermine French power.