The West African Cross Country Championships was an international cross country running competition between West African nations. It was staged on one occasion in 1996 in Bamako, Mali. It featured a men's race and a women's race, both of which had individual and team components. Souley Oumarou of Niger won the men's race in a time of 31:41 minutes, helping his national team to the men's title with six points. In the women's race, Ama Amého of Togo took the individual gold medal with a run of 19:45 minutes, while the women's team title was won by Burkina Faso on ten points.^[1]