The Comoro Archipelago
is located at the northern end of the Mozambique and it is composed of four major islands
with associated islets: Grande Comore (Ngazidga), Anjouan (Ndzuani), Moheli (Mwali) and
Mayotte (Maore). The first three constitute the independent Federal
Islamic Republic of Comoros, while Mayotte has remained a French territory. With an area
of 1,862 square kilometers and a population of over 672,000 people, Grande Comore,
which is the biggest island, absorbs over 50% of the population and covers over 60% of the
total land area. A former French colony, they gained their independence on July 1975,
however due to worsening economic conditions, there have been lately secessionist
tendencies on two of the islands, Anjouan and Moheli.
The islands are among the
most densely populated areas within Africa and the rapid population growth has strained
the fragile natural environment and the scarce agricultural land. Tourism is at a
rudimentary stage and most of the developments take place on the largest island, Grande
Comore, where the capital city, Moroni, is situated. This has threatened the
cohesion of the island state as the smaller islands believe they are being neglected. The
political scene was characterised by dictatorial rule during the first 13 years of
independence, followed by the introduction of multiparty system in 1990, which is marked
since then by factionalism and ever-changing coalitions.
With a telephone
network capacity of 12,000 lines, the total number of connected lines on the Comoro
island state accounts for 6,500 in 1999 resulting in a telephone density of
0.96 line per hundred people.
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