The Maghreb is usually defined as encompassing much of the northern part of Africa, including a large portion of the Sahara Desert. There’s a lot going on in this region, but events in Africa’s mostly francophone northwestern corner are consistently under-reported in the UK media.
The Maghreb countries, with a population of almost 100 mln people between them, in fact are a large market, not too far away from the UK. They cover a geographical area bigger than Europe -Algeria alone is larger than France, Spain, Germany, Poland, Italy and the UK combined- that borders the Sahel, one of the world’s poorest and most unstable regions.
It is also a region with huge economic potential, and a young population increasingly interested in Britain. There is an appetite, especially in Morocco and Tunisia, for UK investment, as well as growing interest in English language learning. It is something of a mystery, then, that the region has attracted such relatively little attention from successive UK governments.
Industry experts claim the UK can play an important role in boosting the Maghreb’s stability through greater political engagement and well-thought-through cooperation projects—but most of all through increasing economic links with the region.
Source: prospectmagazine.co.uk
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