Pemba is the capital of a province at war, and it is also a functioning port city where oil and gas contractors, aid workers, officials and a few tourists come and go every day. Both things are true. The question for anyone planning a trip is where the line between them runs…
In 1989 you could count the Pemba flying fox on Pemba Island by the handful. The big fruit bat, with a wingspan of well over a metre and a fox-like…
There are two Pemba airports, about 850 kilometres apart on the same coast, and both are too small for what is now being asked of them. Pemba…
There is a second Pemba, and for many people searching the name, it's the one they mean. Pemba Island lies about 50 kilometres north of Unguja, the…
For most people, Pemba is reached by air, and in the current war that's the only sensible way. Pemba Airport, code POL, a few kilometres from the…
Pemba is spread along the southern shore of its bay, and its neighbourhoods tell the story of the city in order: the colonial port, the modern…
Pemba's hotel market runs on the gas industry and the aid agencies, not on tourists. When TotalEnergies froze its project in 2021, business slumped…
