Africa Countries

Africa Countries

The African continent currently comprises 55 independent states, all of which (except Morocco) are gathered in the African Union. The largest African country in terms of area is Algeria in the north of the continent with 2,381,741 km² . On the other hand, Nigeria has the most inhabitants of Africa with around 129 million inhabitants – this is currently number 7 in the global statistics done by Countryaah.com.

African Countries

Country Area (km²) Residents Capital
Egypt 1,001,450 77,510,000 Cairo
Algeria 2,381,741 32,530,000 Algiers
Angola 1,246,700 12,500,000 Luanda
Equatorial Guinea 28.051 526,000 Malabo
Ethiopia 1,127,130 73,100,000 Addis Ababa
Benin 112,622 7,460,000 Porto-Novo
Botswana 600,350 1,690,000 Gaborone
Burkina Faso 274,200 13,930,000 Ouagadougou
Burundi 27,834 7,100,000 Bujumbura
Ivory Coast 322,450 17,300,000 Yamoussoukro
Djibouti 23,100 712,000 Djibouti city
Eritrea 121.144 4,560,000 Asmara
Gabon 267.667 1,320,000 Libreville
Gambia 11,295 1,350,000 Banjul
Ghana 238,533 21,030,000 Accra
Guinea 245,857 9,030,000 Conakry
Guinea-Bissau 36,125 1,420,000 Bissau
Cameroon 475,442 16,380,000 Yaoundé
Cape Verde 4,033 476,000 Praia
Kenya 582.646 33,830,000 Nairobi
Comoros 2,170 671,000 Moroni
Congo-Kinshasa 2,345,410 58,300,000 Kinshasa
Congo-Brazzaville 342,000 3,390,000 Brazzaville
Lesotho 30,355 1,870,000 Maseru
Liberia 111,370 3,480,000 Monrovia
Libya 1,769,540 5,680,000 Tripoli
Madagascar 587.041 18,040,000 Antananarivo
Malawi 118,480 12,160,000 Lilongwe
Mali 1,240,000 12,280,000 Bamako
Morocco 458.730 32,200,000 Rabat
Mauritania 1,030,700 3,090,000 Nouakchott
Mauritius 2,040 1,230,000 Port Louis
Mozambique 801.551 19,410,000 Maputo
Namibia 824.292 2,030,000 Windhoek
Niger 1,267,000 12,000,000 Niamey
Nigeria 923.768 129,000,000 Abuja
Rwanda 26,338 8,440,000 Kigali
Sahara Desert 252.120 270,000 El Aaiun
Zambia 752.614 11,280,000 Lusaka
São Tomé and Príncipe 1,001 182,000 Sao Tome
Senegal 196.722 10,130,000 Dakar
Seychelles 454 82,000 Victoria
Sierra Leone 71,750 4,960,000 Freetown
Zimbabwe 390,759 12,750,000 Harare
Somalia 637.657 9,000,000 Mogadishu
South Africa 1,221,000 45,000,000 Pretoria
Sudan 1,889,068 38,000,000 Khartoum
South Sudan 630,000 8,270,000 Juba
Swaziland 17,363 1,170,000 Mbabane
Tanzania 945.100 36,780,000 Dodoma
Togo 56,785 5,450,000 Lome
Chad 1,284,000 9,250,000 N’Djamena
Tunisia 163,610 10,080,000 Tunis
Uganda 241.100 27,300,000 Kampala
Central African Republic 622.884 3,790,000 Bangui

Geography

From the north to the south, the continent is about 8000 kilometers longest. The continent reaches about as far north as south of the equator, but with about two-thirds of the land mass north of the equator. The largest distance east-west is around 7600 kilometers.

The northernmost point on mainland Africa is Cape Blanc in Tunisia, the westernmost is Cape Verde in Senegal, the southernmost is Cape Agulhas in South Africa, and the easternmost is Ras Hafun in Somalia.

Somalia

There are few deep cuts in Africa’s coastline; the largest are the Gulf of Guinea on the west coast and Great and Little South on the north coast. Relatively few islands make up about two percent of the land area. The largest island is Madagascar off the southeast coast.

The African continent consists of five ancient cratons (bedrock areas) associated with younger mountain ranges. More than half of the continent has Precambrian rocks in the surface, the rest are younger deposits on the bedrock. In the modern days of the Earth, the search pit system Rift Valley originated from south of Lake Malawi and north through East Africa and all the way up to the Jordan Valley in Asia. Along the edges of East Africa, the land mass was raised to ridges with a number of active volcanoes. The Atlas Mountains of North West Africa are part of the alpine folding zone of the Earth’s modern age.

Africa has many lakes, including several large ones in connection with the Rift Valley in East Africa. From the south to the north to Ethiopia are the most important Malawi, Lake Tanganyika, Lake Victoria, Lake Kivus, Lake Edward, Lake Alberta, Lake Turkana and Lake Tanas. In the steppe belt south of the Sahara lies Lake Chad.

In Algeria, Libya, northwestern Egypt as well as in Ethiopia and Djibouti, there are recesses of salt and soda lakes that are lower than the sea level.

The North African rivers are short, but through Northeast Africa, Africa’s longest river, the Nile, flows from Lake Victoria and Lake Albert to the outlet delta in the southeastern Mediterranean. In West Africa, several major rivers, including Niger, flow into the Gulf of Guinea. Further south, the Congolese river , which is Africa’s most water-rich river, flows. In South Africa, the Orange River flows into the Atlantic Ocean, and in the southeast, among others, the river Zambezi with the mighty Victoria Falls.

On the coast and inland into Northeast Africa are the Atlas Mountains, and in the Sahara Desert there are several mountain masses, including Ahaggar and Tibesti. On the coast in several places in Africa there are several similar ridges, such as the mountain ranges along the Red Sea and Ethiopian Highlands in the northeast, the Ruwenzori massif and other mountain regions in East Africa, and the Drakensberg and Namib mountains in southern Africa.

The coastal strip along the Mediterranean is fertile in many places, but within is the largest desert in the world, the Sahara (eight million square kilometers) and the Kalahari Desert north of the mountains of South Africa.

In the Central African lowlands as well as along the north and north of the Gulf of Guinea there are tropical rainforests. To the north, south and east the forests turn into savannas, steppes and deserts.

Africa’s coastal landscapes range from dunes to lagoons and ridges. The striking shortage of peninsulas and smaller bays provides a very low number of natural ports compared to the total coast length of 30,000 kilometers.