It is not often the African island nation of the Comoros, or Union of the Comoros, gets into the news.
Most people have never heard of it.
Comoros is in the southern archipelago region of the Indian Ocean, roughly equidistant of the African coast of Mozambique and the much, much larger island of Madagascar. The country might be known for two things — it was where the “living fossil” fish, the Coelacanth (Coelacanthus granulatus) was rediscovered in the late 1930s, and it is where French mercenary Bob Denard organized four separate coup d’états in the 1970s and 1980s and here he acted as a de facto leader.
I wrote about them in 2021 when I met someone at a hotel-industry conference who lived in a house in France, I believe, sold to his mother by Denard.
So, here is another excuse to get this forgotten group of half a dozen or so inhabited islands.
In October, the Comorian president Azali Assoumani unveiled the Maritime Corridor Development & Regional Trade Facilitation Project. It has received funding of $135 million from the Ivory Coast-based African Development Fund and $110 million from other partners, including the European Union, European Investment Bank; French Development Agency, Islamic Development Bank and World Bank.
The hope is the project will spur business travel to the islands, which will spur hotel development.
A search in the CoStar Group database reveals nine hotels, only two of which are internationally branded: the 134-room Sofitel Moroni and 67-room Golden Tulip Grand Comore Resort & Spa. Moroni is the capital of Comoros.
Both of those internationally branded properties are within French hotel groups, not a surprising discovery as in the colonial era, France was the power on the islands until Comoros' independence in 1975.
A news release about the project states its aim is “to modernize port infrastructure that is essential to the economic development of the islands of the Union of the Comoros, facilitate trade and strengthen regional connectivity. It will enable the Indian Ocean archipelago to capitalize on its strategic geographical position in the Mozambique Channel and become a logistics hub between Africa and Asia.”
I assume this huge sum of money must represent some form of recognition of the stability of the country, a stability I have rarely read about in regards to the islands.
According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, Assoumani himself has instigated his own coup d’état to seize power, has been ousted, has made several political comebacks and on at least one occasion suspended the Comorian Constitutional Court as part of a campaign seeking to abolish term limits.
Whereas Saudi Arabia has a Vision2030, Comoros has its Comoros Emerging Plan 2030.
The African Development Bang Group, which overseas the African Development Fund, hailed Comoros’ so-called Blue Economy in a 2021 report. It said the island nation “has immense potential with its multiple marine resources (fishing and aquaculture, maritime port and transport, tourism, renewable energies, marine resources, marine biotechnology, &c.) that constitute promising areas for private investment. The country’s main asset is its geographical position, which makes it a natural logistics hub in the Indian Ocean.”
Fingers crossed as I do like to follow developments there, although it seems unlikely I will ever make it there. Comoros was the first island nation I ever outlined when I was a six-year-old pouring over my first atlas — Philips’ Modern School Atlas, in case you are wondering.
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