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2002-06-29 International

Five Arab nations on UN's list of least developed. Wotta surprise.

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Posted by Fred Pruitt 2002-06-29 08:36 am|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 "An area more than a country." Classic! They used to contest the Western Sahara with Morocco but gave that up, what, a decade ago? And I think I've heard that GIA militants shelter over the border, as well as Western Saharan militants and their government-in-exile (which is a recognized member of the OAU, one reason Morocco isn't). But I don't think they do much on their own.

Djibouti used to be the key French port at the horn of Africa, but since the beret-wearers left I gather it's been in a steady decline, a city-state with no real reason for being. You can think of it as being a less-chaotic extension of Eritrea and Somalia, maybe one of the reasons the unrecognized government of what used to be British Somaliland has been able to pull itself together. If I'm not mistaken, the north coast of the horn is ethnically and culturally more Arab than the interior and east coast.

Posted by Dan Hartung 2002-06-29 09:13:29|| [www.lakefx.nu/] 2002-06-29 09:13:29|| Front Page Top