Academics, policymakers and newspapers—including The Economist—routinely refer to part of the continent as “sub-Saharan Africa”. The World Bank used to include both countries in sub-Saharan Africa, before moving Djibouti to the Middle East and North Africa in 2000. And whereas the World Bank includes the Arabic-speaking states of Mauritania and Sudan in sub-Saharan Africa, the IMF does not. In the 1960s and 1970s, the World Bank lumped white-ruled, apartheid-era South Africa together with the Middle East and North Africa. So “sub-Saharan Africa” will continue to appear, including in the pages of The Economist.

Source: The North Africa Journal March 07, 2019 15:45 UTC