In the year 2000, Choum had a population of 2,735.[1]
History
The town grew from its position on trans-Saharan trading routes. It declined with the trade, and, in 1977, was attacked by French troops as a suspected base of the Polisario Front, the rebel organization fighting for independence for the Western Sahara. Fortifications from the period survive around the town.
The town stands on a spur of land which carries the major turning-point in the border between Mauritania and the Western Sahara.
In the early 1960s, the French colonial authorities in Mauritania wished to build the line from Nouadhibou to Zouérat to exploit the iron ore reserves at Zouérat. The Spanish authorities then responsible for the Western Sahara negotiated to allow the railway to be built through Spanish territory over relatively level desert, but imposed many conditions unacceptable to the French.
The French engineers therefore designed the line parallel to the border and a tunnel through the Choum hill spur — two kilometers through solid granite just to stay within French territory.
The N1 highway from Atar now runs all the way to north Zouérat. The sandy track paralleling the railway west to Nouadhibou traverses low dune cordons. Regular vehicles can be loaded onto a flatbed wagon at Choum.[2]
Griffiths, Ieuan (July 1986). "The scramble for Africa: inherited political boundaries". The Geographical Journal. 152 (2). The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers): 204–216. doi:10.2307/634762. ISSN0016-7398. JSTOR634762.
