NewsTracker Answers for week of Jan. 23, 2017

Q: A regional military force last week convinced Yahya Jammeh to finally accept an election defeat and leave the tiny West African nation he ruled for 22 years. Where is The Gambia, the smallest country on Africa’s mainland?

Circle the area on this map

Q: When Jammeh refused to step down, the winner of a Dec.1 election was sworn in as president at the Gambian embassy in which nation that surrounds The Gambia on three sides?

A. Ethiopia

B. Libya

C. Senegal

D. Zambia

C. The Gambia is entirely surrounded by Senegal except for the Atlantic Ocean on its western end. Ethiopia is in eastern Africa; Libya is in northern Africa; and Zambia is in southern Africa.

Q: The tiny nation gets its name from a . . .

A. Bay

B. Forest

C. Mountain

D. River

D. The Gambia is situated on either side of the Gambia River, which flows through the country’s 4,127 square miles and empties into the Atlantic.

Q: If it were a U.S. state, The Gambia would rank as the . . .

A. 4th smallest

B. 3rd smallest

C. 2nd smallest

D. Smallest

B. At 4,127 square miles, The Gambia is larger than Rhode Island’s 1,545 square miles and Delaware’s 2,489 square miles but smaller than Connecticut’s 5,543 square miles.

Q: Like many West African nations, The Gambia was colonized by Europeans seeking what?

A. Slaves

B. Spices

C. Gold

D. All of the above

A. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to use the Gambia River to grab slave labor for the Americas. The British later took over and set up the colony of Senegambia. Close to one third of people of the Senegambia region were sold as slaves.