What makes the countries of Central Africa a region
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.
Counted from the members
- Countries
- 9
- People
- 206.0 m
- Economy
- $348.2 bnGDP
- Per person
- $1 690a head
- Land area
- 6 612 703km²
- In the United Nations
- 9/9
The grouping is the M49 division that the United Nations Statistics Division calls Middle Africa, recorded here under the name in wider English use. It takes in the Congo Basin, the Atlantic coast from the Cameroon border down to the river mouth, and, at the northern end, a stretch of the Sahara that reaches the Tibesti. The equator crosses Gabon, both Congos and the islet of Rolas off the southern tip of São Tomé. Two members, the Central African Republic and Chad, are landlocked; one, São Tomé and Príncipe, has no land border at all.
One currency and three others
Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon carry the Central African CFA franc in their records. It is issued by the Banque des États de l'Afrique Centrale, which has sat in Yaoundé since it was founded in 1972, and it is pegged to the euro at 655.957 francs. Those same members make up CEMAC, whose treaty was signed at N'Djamena on 16 March 1994 and which took over from a customs union agreed at Brazzaville in December 1964. The rest keep their own money: the Congolese franc, the Angolan kwanza and the São Toméan dobra.
Where the edges are argued
ECCAS, founded at Libreville on 18 October 1983, draws the region on a different roster. It admits Burundi and Rwanda, which M49 files under Eastern Africa, so whether a country sits in Central Africa depends on which body is being read. The argument runs the other way as well. Angola and DR Congo both belong to the Southern African Development Community and are frequently counted with Southern Africa, and Chad, a CEMAC member since the beginning, is treated as a Sahel state by the institutions that work on the Sahel. This catalogue follows M49 and records the disagreement without settling it.
What the partition left
French is official in seven of the members. Portuguese is official in Angola, in São Tomé and Príncipe, and in Equatorial Guinea, whose record carries three official languages: Spanish from the colonial period, French added in 1998 and Portuguese in 2010. Cameroon holds English and French together because German Kamerun was divided between French and British mandates in 1922, and the British-administered south voted in the plebiscite of 11 February 1961 to join the republic rather than Nigeria. Chad has Arabic beside French. Independence came to Cameroon, Chad, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, DR Congo and Gabon inside eight months of 1960, to Equatorial Guinea on 12 October 1968, and to São Tomé and Príncipe and Angola in 1975. Oil brought three of them into OPEC late: Gabon returned in 2016, Equatorial Guinea joined in 2017 and the Republic of the Congo in 2018.
Counted from the records
What Central Africa runs on
- Landlocked members
- 2 of 9without a coast
- In the United Nations
- 9 of 9every member holds a seat
- Time zones
- +00:00, +01:00, +02:003 offsets
- Currencies
- XAF, AOA, CDF, STNXAF in 6 of them
- How they are filed
- 9 sovereign statesthe roster's own three statuses
- Driving side
- right, in every member
- Calling codes
- +235, +236, +237, +239, +240, +241, +242, +243, +244
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.