Comoros

Comoros is a country made of islands.

The islands are in the warm Indian Ocean, near Africa. Volcanoes made them. The capital city is Moroni.

Comoros is a country of three main islands in the Indian Ocean, about 290 kilometers off the east coast of Africa, between Madagascar and Mozambique. The islands are Grande Comore, Mohéli and Anjouan. A fourth island in the same group, Mayotte, is run by France, though Comoros says it should belong to Comoros.

The 2017 census counted 758,316 people. The capital, Moroni, is on Grande Comore. People speak Comorian, a language related to Swahili, and French and Arabic are official languages too.

The Comoro Islands lie at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel, about 290 km off East Africa. Under the 2001 constitution, Grande Comore (N'gazidja), Mohéli (Mwali) and Anjouan (Ndzuwani) form the Union of the Comoros, each with partial autonomy; the presidency has rotated among the islands.

INSEED's 2017 general census counted 758,316 residents (381,812 men and 376,504 women), 235,762 of them urban. Britannica gives Grande Comore about half the population, Anjouan about two-fifths and Mohéli less than one-tenth, with about two-fifths of people under 15. Comorian (Shikomor), French and Arabic are official, and Islam is the state religion. Comoros joined the World Trade Organization in 2024.

Grande Comore is the biggest island.

Moroni has a harbor with boats. Mohéli is the smallest island, with thick forests. Anjouan has a tall mountain in the middle.

Grande Comore is the biggest and highest island. Moroni, the capital, lies on its west coast below the volcano Mount Karthala, and the photo shows its harbor. The island has no rivers that flow all year, so people have long collected rainwater in tanks.

Mohéli is the smallest island, with fertile valleys and forested hills; its main town is Fomboni. Anjouan is shaped like a triangle, with a volcanic mountain in the middle and the town of Mutsamudu on its northwest coast.

Grande Comore rises at its south end to Mount Karthala; north of the volcano is a rocky plateau averaging about 600 m with shallow soils and no perennial streams. Rain sinks so deeply into the porous lava that wells are hard to drill, so water traditionally came from rainy-season reservoirs and coastal freshwater springs (foumbous). Moroni has most of the country's commercial and manufacturing facilities, and an international airport is nearby.

Mohéli is a plateau averaging about 300 m, ending in a western ridge above 790 m, with fertile valleys and thick forests; Fomboni has a port built with EU funds in the early 1990s. Triangular Anjouan rises to Mount Ntingui (about 1,580 m); erosion has made many areas no longer arable. Mutsamudu, its chief town, had its port modernized in the mid-1980s.

The islands grew up from the sea floor as volcanoes.

Mount Karthala is still active. Sandy beaches and coral reefs ring the islands. Flowers make the air smell sweet.

The Comoro Islands rose from the floor of the Indian Ocean as volcanoes. Mount Karthala on Grande Comore is an active volcano, 2,361 meters high, and it has erupted more than a dozen times in the last 200 years. Dark lava flows reach down to some beaches.

It is warm all year, with a cooler dry season from May to October and a hot, rainy season from November to April, when tropical cyclones are most likely. Mangroves line the coasts, with coconut palms, mangoes and bananas higher up and forest on the mountains. Jasmine, frangipani and lemongrass fill the air with scent.

Britannica describes islands built by volcanic activity, with coral reefs, sandy beaches, coconut groves, mangroves, recent lava flows and rounded rocks from older eruptions. Karthala (2,361 m) has erupted more than a dozen times in two centuries; Mayotte is the oldest of the four main islands.

The dry season runs May–October and the humid season November–April; the kashkazi monsoon brings afternoon highs of about 33 °C in November, and January rainfall reaches 275–375 mm. Annual rain ranges from about 1,100 to 2,900 mm, highest on windward northeast slopes. Less than one-sixth of the land remains forested, mainly because of firewood demand; vegetation runs from mangroves through coconut, mango and banana zones to forest up to about 1,800 m, with broom, heather and lichens on the highest peaks.

A very old kind of fish lives in the deep sea here.

It is called a coelacanth. Big fruit bats fly at night. Sea turtles swim along the coasts.

Deep in the waters around Comoros lives the coelacanth, a rare fish that scientists once thought had died out long ago. Its fossil relatives date back about 400 million years. The photo was taken in South Africa, another home of the coelacanth.

The islands' animals are like those of Madagascar. There are lemurs and fruit bats found only on these islands, plus guinea fowl, egrets, civets, small lizards and giant land crabs. Turtles are common along the coasts. As the number of people grows, several species are in danger.

Britannica lists Comorian waters as a habitat of the coelacanth, a fish long thought extinct whose fossil record goes back about 400 million years; coelacanths caught there provide some income to fishers. Land fauna resembles Madagascar's, with species of lemurs and fruit bats peculiar to the islands, guinea fowl and egrets, civets, small lizards and giant land crabs. Turtles abound along the coasts.

Britannica notes that the expanding human population has put a number of species under threat of extinction, and deforestation for firewood is shrinking forest habitat. The coelacanth photo was taken 69 m deep off KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, in 2019, and the turtle photo in French Polynesia.

Most people speak Comorian.

Families fish and grow bananas and cassava. Farms grow vanilla and sweet-smelling flowers. Many people are Muslim.

Comorians have ancestors from Africa, Madagascar, Arabia, Persia and Southeast Asia. Most people speak a version of Comorian, a Bantu language related to Swahili. French is the language of government, and most people are Muslim.

More than two-thirds of people live in the countryside. Families grow cassava, sweet potatoes, bananas and rice and keep chickens and goats, but much food must be bought from abroad. Plantations grow vanilla, coconuts, cloves and ylang-ylang, a flower whose oil is used in perfume.

Britannica describes a mix of Malay immigrants, Arab and Persian traders, Malagasy and African peoples. Most speak island varieties of Comorian (Shikomoro), a Bantu language related to Swahili, written in Arabic script; Shingazidja, the Grande Comore dialect, appears in the government weekly Al Watwan. Most Comorians are Sunni Muslims.

The economy rests on subsistence farming and fishing; cassava, sweet potatoes, bananas and mountain rice are grown, but much food is imported. Plantations produce vanilla (mostly Grande Comore and Anjouan), perfume plants such as ylang-ylang (particularly Anjouan), coconuts (Mohéli), coffee, cloves and cacao. Tuna in Comorian waters has mostly been fished by EU fleets. Britannica notes that educated and skilled workers have long left for France, and that political instability has held back tourism.