A joint Swiss-Russian project launched in 2000 puts as its goal an integral description of each of the languages of the Southern Mande language group, one of the least studied groups in the Mande family to the date. Nine field trips have been undertaken by the Russian team in the framework of the project. Many interesting linguistic phenomena have been discovered. Two dictionaries were published in 2008, and the total number of publications of the team is more than 80. The scope of the project is now being extended to other groups of the Mande family.