Hodh or El Hodh (from the Arabic for "the Basin") is a region of West Africa. Previously administered as part of French Sudan (present-day Mali), the area was transferred to French Mauritania in 1944, apparently on a whim of the colonial governor Laigret. The transfer was still resented upon Mali's independence. Formerly more fertile, it is now largely a barren waste. It gave its name to the modern Mauritanian regions of Hodh Ech Chargui and Hodh El Gharbi.