ABSTRACT
France’s former territories in north and west Africa (27) formed a continuous area stretching from the Mediterranean to the Congo river. In this area there are now 17 sovereign states. In the north, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia are Arab countries (29, 38). The other 14 states, formerly grouped as French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa, have a combined population barely equal to Nigeria’s; the Sahara desert covers most of Mauritania and much of Mali, Niger and Chad.
