Africa’s borders are a mess — and you can thank the Europeans: ‘We have been giving away mountains and rivers and lakes to each other … only hindered by the small impediments that we never knew where the mountains and rivers and lakes were,” British prime minister, Lord Salisbury, once said in 1890 talking about carving borders in European colonies. Pre-colonial borders were fuzzy, The Economist writes, but in 1964 independent African states, anxious to avoid conflict, agreed to stick with the colonial borders, but “made little effort to mark out frontiers on the ground.”

Now, demarcating borders between African nations comes with a host of challenges, including politics, as “many borderlands are coveted for pasture or minerals: disputed lakes harbour oil, gas and fish. Climate change and population growth are putting pressure on resources, making conflicts harder to resolve.” Practical issues also pose their own set of challenges as demarcations often begin with archived old European documents that include treaties referring to “rivers which have changed course, or tracks that have disappeared” with on-the-ground, GPS-wielding surveyors often having to “traipse through rugged borderlands, erecting pillars, reassuring locals and in some places dodging landmines. That said, and although “full-blown territorial wars” have been rare in Africa, The Economist believes “fixing frontiers would cement peace and help local economies.”