Yearbook 2008 Libya. The country’s proximity to the outside world continued. Libya was reported in January to have ratified an agreement with the British oil company BP on oil and gas extraction worth $ 900 million. The ratification was said to have been made only after Britain proposed that Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, a former intelligence…
Category: Africa
But what climates can Africa be divided into?
A special feature of this continent, which only Africa can show, is the overlap of the two tropics of the earth. Accordingly, Africa can also mainly be described as a tropical continent, although the subtropics can be found both in the north and in the south. In general, however, the tropical climates follow one another almost symmetrically. Since the so-called “Congo Basin” and the Upper Berguine Coast core areas are known for their tropical, humid climate, only temperatures above 18 degrees Celsius and high amounts of precipitation can be recorded here. In the north, south and east of the continent, however, a hot and humid savanna climate can be found, which is characterized by both rainy and dry seasons. Furthermore, areas near the equator also belong to the hot savannah climate in East Africa.
The exclusively arid regions of Africa are the central regions of Namibia and Kalahari and the Sahara, which have high temperatures every day. Areas on the Red Sea, on the other hand, can undoubtedly be called the hottest places on earth. Because temperatures of up to 50 degrees can be reached here in the summer months of July and August. The north of Sudan is also strongly influenced by this climate, but has lower temperatures. A dry summer and partly Mediterranean climate can only be found in the Cape Country.
In terms of topography, the continent of Africa can be divided into 53 states. It is also worth mentioning that the state of Mauritania has been excluded and Morocco has replaced it. Furthermore, the so-called “Arab Sahara Republic” is not officially to be found, but is recognized as a full member by many other countries on the continent. The Somaliland Republic has not yet been formally recognized either. But regardless of any political point of view, the number of 53 African states remains.
Africa’s languages
There is no continent in which more languages with their different dialects are spoken than in Africa. However, the African languages should by no means be seen as a common language family. The Arabic spoken in North Africa has absolutely nothing to do with the Afrikaans spoken in South Africa. An important subdivision of languages is those that originated in Africa and are only spoken there, and languages that were introduced from outside, such as English and Arabic. The former colonial languages, English, French and Portuguese, are still widely spoken in the former colonies and are usually also the official language of the countries concerned or at least serve as the lingua franca. For more information about the continent of Africa, please check physicscat.com.
Liberia 2008
Yearbook 2008 Liberia. Planned municipal elections, which would have been the first since 1985, had until now been canceled for cost reasons. The Supreme Court authorized the president to appoint mayors in consultation with local politicians. In March, however, the first census was carried out since 1984; of great importance for community planning during the…
Lesotho 2008
Yearbook 2008 Lesotho. A disagreement over the distribution of the mandate following the 2007 parliamentary elections persisted. The conflict concerned the spread of the third mandate to be distributed under a proportionate system. Botswana’s former president Ketumile Masire, who was called in to mediate, noted that he had failed to get the government or opposition…
Kenya 2008
Yearbook 2008 Kenya. The year began with severe unrest in large parts of the country as a result of President Mwai Kibaki being declared victorious in the presidential elections at the end of December 2007, despite a seemingly confident leadership of opposition candidate Raila Odinga. The violence bore clear features of ethnic cleansing carried out…
Ivory Coast 2008
Yearbook 2008 Ivory Coast. The former rebels who rule the Ivory Coast’s northern half began their demobilization in May with the intention of disbanding their armed forces until the November presidential election. However, the disarmament took considerably longer than planned, and when the registration of voters also expired at the time, the country’s leader in…
Guinea-Bissau 2008
Yearbook 2008 Guinea Bissau. Guinea-Bissau in February became the third country to be granted special support from the UN Peace-building Commission, whose task is to help rebuild society after a conflict and to prevent new outbreaks. In recent years, Guinea-Bissau, along with several other West African countries, has begun to be used as a transit…
Guinea 2008
Yearbook 2008 Guinea. The mass protests in 2007 meant that President Lansana Conté was forced to give in to the trade unions and the political opposition, among other things by giving the new Prime Minister Lansana Kouyaté greater influence. In 2008, however, it became clear that the president and the circle around him have largely…
Ghana 2008
Yearbook 2008 Ghana. High oil and food prices drove inflation up. The rate of increase in prices peaked in June at 18.4 percent and then declined marginally. The state budget for 2008 predicted inflation of 6–8 percent. Despite financial problems, a new presidential palace was completed in Accra. The budget framework of US $ 30…
Gambia 2008
Yearbook 2008 The Gambia. Shortly after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) granted the Gambia debt amortization of over half a billion dollars, President Yahya Jammeh promised that all public servants would receive a 20 percent higher salary. At the same time, he said government spending would be tightened to curb inflation. During the year, several…
Gabon 2008
Yearbook 2008 Gabon. Foreign Minister Jean Ping was elected in February as new chairman of the AU Commission, the African Union’s administrative body. He was succeeded as Foreign Minister by Laure Olga Gondjout, who was most recently Minister responsible for communications, postal and IT issues. In municipal elections in April, the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party…