Location: West Africa is located between latitudes 4ON and 20ON of the Equator between 15 OE and 18OW of the Greenwich Meridian.
Position: West Africa is found in the western part of Africa. It is bounded in the north by Sahara Desert, in the east by the Cameroun Republic and to the south and west by the Atlantic ocean.
Size : West Africa occupies about 1/5 or the area of Africa and has a total area of approximately 6,143,000 square kilometres.
Political Divisions
West Africa is made up of fifteen mainland countries and other offshore islands. These countries are grouped according to the major languages i.e. English, French and Portuguese languages .
(1). Anglophone Countries : These Countries speak English as their official language.e.g. Nigeria, Gambia, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
(2). Francophone Countries : These Countries speak French as their official language. E.g. Republic of Benin, Togo, Niger, Cote D'ivore, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Senegal, Mali and Mauritania.
(3). Portuguese Countries : The only country in this group is Guinea Bissau. The people speak Portuguese.
Out of these countries, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso are popularly referred to as land locked countries because they do not have access to the coast.
LandLocked Countries
Meaning: land locked countries refer to those countries which do not have any access or boundaries with the coast of ocean.
Examples: Landlocked countries include Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Chad.
Problems of land locked countries
(1). They experience high freight cost.
(2). They depend economically on other countries.
(3). They depend politically on other countries.
(4). They experience loss of revenue due to smuggling and inability to control duties.
(5). There is always insecurity of goods.
(6). There is also political instability.
![Screenshot_20180506-220803~2.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmUJ1P9EBksmRxqEim4y1D4zWFMRbkpTAJucgrjS5Sb86d/Screenshot_20180506-220803~2.pn
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