Some African Nations

Sudan
• Largest African nation
in land area
• Part grassland, part
desert
• Nile River
• Could be Africa’s
“breadbasket”
• Continuing Black
(south) vs. Moslem
(north) civil war
• Genocide in Darfur
Destroyed villages
• Food problems,
refugees in camps

• Population 40 million
 Nigeria
• Largest African nation
in population - 140
million
• Oil rich, but politically
unstable
• 250 tribes -- biggest
are Ibo, Yoruba,
Hausa, Fulani
l i
• Great economic
potential
Ethiopia
• 75 million people, 70
languages
• Long civil war ended
in 1991, now has 9
i d
independent
d regional
i l
provinces
• Never colonized,
Jewish and Christian
religious roots
• Great famine in the
1980’s
• One of the world’s
poorest countries
 Somalia
• “Horn of Africa”
• Longtime dictator left
in 1990 and country
collapsed into civil
between tribes and
ethnic groups
gro ps
• President Clinton sent
US troops to help, but
they left without
accomplishing much
• Economy collapsed
and a widespread
famine killed 300,000
in 1991-1992
• With aid, slowly
recovering
 Mozambique
• Former Portuguese
colony
• 21 million people
• Civil war ended in
1992 after great
famine
• One of world’s five
poorest countries
i
Weapons become peace
sculptures
 Rwanda
• 10 million people,
most densely
populated in Africa
• Bloody civil war in
mid-1990’s between
Hutu (farming) and
Tutsi (cattle herding)
ethnic groups
gro ps
• Genocide -- first
Hutus killing Tutsis,
then reversed
• Many refugees have
fled, afraid to return
• Known in peaceful
times for coffee and
mountain gorillas
 Congo formerly Zaire,
Congo, Zaire formerly
Belgian Congo
• Land along the Zaire
River system
Belgian Congo
Zaire
• Held together for 30
years by President
Mobutu
• Mobutu was away due
to illness and a civil
war broke out
• New unstable
government resulted
l d
• Many ethnic groups,
plus refugees from
Rwanda, both Hutus
and Tutsis
• Population
l i 65 million
illi
 Sierra Leone
• Small country in West
Africa, once a leading
slave producer
• Population 5 million
• Bloody civil war
through the 1990’s
fought by child
soldiers
• Army financed by
selling mined
diamonds (“blood
diamonds”)
• Rebels amputated
hands of villagers,
young and old, to keep
them from fighting
back
• After the war, a new
government was
elected