The countries of Central Africa
Kinshasa and Brazzaville face each other across the lower Congo. The river drains most of the land in this group, which the United Nations lists as Middle Africa and which reaches from the Sahara in northern Chad to the Atlantic islands of São Tomé and Príncipe. Six of the members use the Central African CFA franc, issued from Yaoundé by a shared central bank.
9 countries
Common questions
Questions about Central Africa
Which countries are in Central Africa?
Angola, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, DR Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and São Tomé and Príncipe. That is the roster the United Nations Statistics Division publishes under M49 as Middle Africa, and it is the one this catalogue uses. Seven of them lie on the mainland and share borders with one another; São Tomé and Príncipe is an island state in the Gulf of Guinea, about 300 kilometres off the coast. The Economic Community of Central African States adds Burundi and Rwanda to the same name, which is why published lists of the region do not always match.
Are Rwanda and Burundi part of Central Africa?
It depends on the scheme. Both are members of the Economic Community of Central African States, which was founded at Libreville in 1983 and which treats them as Central African. The United Nations M49 classification files both under Eastern Africa, and this catalogue follows M49, so their pages sit in East Africa here. Neither reading is a mistake; they answer to different bodies with different purposes.
Do all the Central African countries use the CFA franc?
No. Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon use the Central African CFA franc, pegged to the euro at 655.957 francs. DR Congo uses the Congolese franc, Angola the kwanza, and São Tomé and Príncipe the dobra.
Why is Portuguese spoken in Central Africa?
Portugal held Angola and the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe until 1975, and Portuguese remains the official language of both. Equatorial Guinea, a Spanish colony until 1968, adopted it as a third official language in 2010 and joined the Community of Portuguese Language Countries in 2014. All three belong to that community; Angola and São Tomé and Príncipe were among its founders in 1996.