Guinean Student Cycles Across Africa for Place at Egypt's Al-Azhar University 

Mamadou Safaiou Barry, a 25-year-old from Guinea, looks on in front of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, September 23, 2023. (Reuters)
Mamadou Safaiou Barry, a 25-year-old from Guinea, looks on in front of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, September 23, 2023. (Reuters)
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Guinean Student Cycles Across Africa for Place at Egypt's Al-Azhar University 

Mamadou Safaiou Barry, a 25-year-old from Guinea, looks on in front of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, September 23, 2023. (Reuters)
Mamadou Safaiou Barry, a 25-year-old from Guinea, looks on in front of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, September 23, 2023. (Reuters)

Mamadou Safaiou Barry was determined to study Islamic theology at an elite school. Unable to afford a flight to Egypt from Guinea, he drew a map of Africa in his spiral notebook and set off on a second-hand mountain bike.

Carrying only a change of clothes, a flashlight and a screwdriver, the 25-year-old cycled thousands of kilometers across the continent, passing through jungles, deserts and conflict zones in the hope of landing a place and finding a way to fund it.

Four months and seven countries later, he is in Cairo with a full scholarship to Al-Azhar University, one of the world's oldest and most renowned Sunni Muslim learning institutions.

"If you have a dream, stay with it and be strong," Barry said. "God will help you."

Thousands of West Africans like Barry undertake risky journeys across the Sahara desert each year, searching for a better life.

Many never make it. Nearly 500 people died or disappeared on West African migration routes last year, data from the International Organization for Migration shows.

Barry decided the risk was worth the reward.

"I had to fight," Barry said last month in Chad.

Covering approximately 100 km each day, Barry pedaled through Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, and Niger before stalling in N'Djamena, the Chadian capital, shaken from his planned route by an ongoing conflict in Sudan.

He said he had already been detained three times - twice in insurgency-plagued Burkina Faso and once in Togo, where security forces held him for nine days without charge before releasing him in exchange for 35,000 CFA francs ($56).

This was the entirety of his savings for the remainder of the journey, he said.

"I often slept in the bush because I was afraid of people in the cities," Barry said. "I thought they would take my bike and hurt me."

Barry's luck changed again in Chad after a local philanthropist, who had read online about his journey, offered to fly him directly to Egypt and bypass the fighting in Sudan.

Barry arrived in Cairo on Sept. 5 and days later secured a full scholarship to Al-Azhar. A photo shared widely on social media shows him meeting a beaming university representative.

He intends to return to Guinea when his studies are complete, to spread the faith that has taken him so far.

"When I return to my country, I would like to be someone who teaches Islam and tells people how to do good things," he said.



Mexico Awaits New Response from Google on Dispute Over Gulf of Mexico Name Before Filing Lawsuit 

The Gulf of Mexico branded as Gulf of America is pictured through a magnifying glass on the Google Maps app on a computer in Bogota on February 11, 2025. (AFP)
The Gulf of Mexico branded as Gulf of America is pictured through a magnifying glass on the Google Maps app on a computer in Bogota on February 11, 2025. (AFP)
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Mexico Awaits New Response from Google on Dispute Over Gulf of Mexico Name Before Filing Lawsuit 

The Gulf of Mexico branded as Gulf of America is pictured through a magnifying glass on the Google Maps app on a computer in Bogota on February 11, 2025. (AFP)
The Gulf of Mexico branded as Gulf of America is pictured through a magnifying glass on the Google Maps app on a computer in Bogota on February 11, 2025. (AFP)

Mexico said Monday it is awaiting a new response from Google to its request that the tech company fully restore the name “Gulf of Mexico” to its Google Maps service before filing a lawsuit.

President Claudia Sheinbaum shared a letter addressed to her government from Cris Turner, Google’s vice president of government affairs and public policy. It says that Google will not change the policy it outlined after US President Donald Trump declared the body of water the Gulf of America.

“We will wait for Google’s response and if not, we will proceed to court,” Sheinbaum said Monday during a morning press briefing.

As it stands, the gulf appears in Google Maps as “Gulf of America” within the United States, as “Gulf of Mexico” within Mexico and “Gulf of Mexico” (Gulf of America) elsewhere. Turner in his letter said the company was using “Gulf of America” to follow “longstanding maps policies impartially and consistently across all regions” and that the company was willing to meet in person with the Mexican government.

“While international treaties and conventions are not intended to regulate how private mapping providers represent geographic features, it is our consistent policy to consult multiple authoritative sources to provide the most up to date and accurate representation of the world,” he wrote.

Mexico has argued that the mapping policy violates Mexican sovereignty because the US only has jurisdiction over around 46% of the Gulf. The rest is controlled by Mexico, which controls 49% and Cuba, which controls around 5%. The name “Gulf of Mexico” dates back to 1607 and is recognized by the United Nations.

In response to Google's letter, Mexican authorities said they would take legal action, writing that “under no circumstance will Mexico accept the renaming of a geographic zone within its own territory and under its jurisdiction.”

The renaming of the body of water by Trump has flared tensions between Mexico and the US at a pivotal time for the neighboring allies.

Sheinbaum has had to walk a fine line with Trump amid threats of tariffs and Mexico and other Latin American countries have braced themselves for promised mass deportations, the brunt of which has still not been felt.

Along with the legal threat to Google, the Mexican president also announced Monday that Mexico and the US would hold high-level meetings this week on trade and security in an effort to maintain a “long-term plan of collaboration” between the two countries.

It's the latest round of talks between the two countries in which Mexico hopes to hold off a larger geopolitical crisis.