Western Sahara: the Polisario Front Prolonged stalemate keeps the conflict unresolved and refugees in exile A 2,700km wall of sand and stone separates the territory of Western Sahara into two parts. This berm, which varies in height from two to five metres, is supported by bunkers, barbed wire, radar systems and landmines. It separates the western Atlantic Ocean coastline of Africa’s last colony from the eastern Sahara. The military fortification stands as a symbol of the longstanding political struggle, which has divided this mainly desert territory in north-west Africa. For nearly four decades since Spain relinquished its rights to its…
Martin Pabst
Urban transport The continent’s major cities need to address traffic congestion in a hurry Africa’s largest cities are choking with traffic. In Egypt’s capital Cairo, for example, congestion costs the country $8 billion a year in lost productivity, additional fuel consumption and the impact of pollution, according to a 2012 World Bank study. The highways of Lagos, Nigeria, are backed up for hours every morning and afternoon, according to a 2013 study in the International Journal of Civil, Architectural, Structural and Construction Engineering. There is similar gridlock in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola’s…
Sudan’s Blue Nile and South Kordofan rebels After losing South Sudan, the country is disintegrating into a series of warring regions The provinces of Blue Nile and South Kordofan in remote southern Sudan are war zones. They are also the scene of an impending health emergency: the government of neighbouring South Sudan confirmed last September the appearance of three cases of polio,a dreaded disease which leaves infected children paralysed. Trying to vaccinate these children and their families is even more difficult as two years of fighting have driven more than a million people from their homes, according to the United…
