Countries and territories of Africa

46 to explore

• Watch Country Algeria Algeria is a country in North Africa and the largest country on the whole continent. More than four-fifths of it is the Sahara Desert, so most of its 47 million people (2025) live in the greener north, along the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is Algiers.
• Watch Country Angola Angola is a large country in southwestern Africa, on the Atlantic Ocean. A narrow coast rises steeply to high plateaus, rivers such as the Cuanza run to the sea, and the Namib Desert reaches its far southwest. Its national statistics institute projects about 38.8 million people for 2026.
• Watch Country Benin Benin is a narrow country in West Africa that stretches from the Atlantic coast up to the Niger River. Lagoons line its short coast, savanna covers the north, and the palaces of the old kingdom of Dahomey still stand at Abomey. About 15 million people live there.
• Watch Country Botswana Botswana is a landlocked country in the middle of southern Africa. Deep Kalahari sand covers most of it, but in the north the Okavango River spreads into a huge green delta full of wildlife. Botswana became independent in 1966 and has grown more prosperous, helped by diamonds.
• Watch Country Burkina Faso Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, on a wide plateau of savanna that is grassy in the north and dotted with forest in the south. About 24 million people live there. Its name, chosen in 1984, means Land of Incorruptible People, and its capital is Ouagadougou.
• Watch Country Burundi Burundi is a small, landlocked country of green hills in east-central Africa, just south of the Equator. Its western edge runs along Lake Tanganyika, the longest freshwater lake in the world. About 14.4 million people live there, and its royal drum dance is famous around the world.
• Watch Country Cabo Verde Cabo Verde is a country made of ten islands in the Atlantic Ocean, about 620 kilometers off the coast of West Africa. Some islands are flat and sandy, others are steep and volcanic, and rain is rare. Its people are famous for their music, and the 2021 census counted about 491,000 people living there.
• Watch Country Cameroon Cameroon sits where western and central Africa meet. In the south are thick rainforests full of monkeys and apes, by the coast rises Mount Cameroon, an active volcano, and in the north are dry savanna plains. About 29.9 million people lived there in 2025, and French and English are both official languages.
• Watch Country Central African Republic The Central African Republic is a landlocked country in the very center of Africa, about the size of France. Grassy savannas cover the north, rainforests grow in the south, and the capital, Bangui, stands on the Ubangi River. About 5.5 million people lived there in 2025.
• Watch Country Chad Chad is a large country in north-central Africa with no coast at all. The Sahara covers much of the north, savanna with elephants and giraffes covers the south, and Lake Chad lies on its western edge.
• Watch Country Côte d'Ivoire Côte d'Ivoire, also called Ivory Coast, is a country on the coast of West Africa. It has lagoons along the sea, rainforest in the south and savanna in the north. It became the world's leading grower of cocoa beans in the late 1980s, and about 32.7 million people lived there in 2025.
• Watch Country Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DR Congo, is the second-largest country in Africa. The mighty Congo River curves through its rainforests, volcanoes rise in the east, and its capital, Kinshasa, is a center of music, fashion and popular culture.
• Watch Country Djibouti Djibouti is a small country in the Horn of Africa, where the Red Sea meets the Gulf of Aden. It is hot and dry, with volcanic rock everywhere, and Lake Assal, 155 meters below sea level, is the lowest point in Africa. About 1.2 million people lived there in 2025, most of them in the capital, also called Djibouti.
• Watch Country Egypt Egypt is in the northeastern corner of Africa, and its Sinai Peninsula reaches into Asia. Almost all of it is desert, so most of its more than 100 million people live along the green banks of the Nile River, where one of the world's earliest civilizations grew.
• Watch Country Eritrea Eritrea is a country in the Horn of Africa with a long coast on the Red Sea. Its capital, Asmara, sits high in cool mountains, while the coast below has one of the highest average temperatures in the world. About 3.6 million people live there, and its name comes from the Latin words for the Red Sea.
• Watch Country Ethiopia Ethiopia is a country on the Horn of Africa with no coast. Much of it is high, rugged land cut by the Great Rift Valley, it is one of the world's oldest countries, and more than 110 million people live there.
• Watch Country Gabon Gabon is a country on the Atlantic coast of Africa, right on the equator. About three-fourths of it is covered by dense rainforest, home to forest elephants, gorillas and mandrills. Most people live in towns and cities, and the 2026 census counted about 3.5 million people.
• Watch Country Ghana Ghana is a country in West Africa on the Gulf of Guinea. It has a coast of sandy bays, a belt of rainforest and wide northern savannas, and one of the world's largest artificial lakes, Lake Volta. In 1957 it became independent, and its capital is Accra.
• Watch Country Guinea Guinea is a country on the Atlantic coast of West Africa. Three of West Africa's great rivers, the Niger, the Sénégal and the Gambia, begin in its Fouta Djallon highlands. It has rainy coasts, high plateaus, savanna and rainforest, and about 17.5 million people were counted there in 2025.
• Watch Country Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau is a small country on the Atlantic coast of West Africa. Its land is low and flat, and the tide pushes seawater far up its rivers. Off the coast lie the Bijagós Islands, where sea turtles nest and hippos swim in the sea. The 2026 national census counted about 2.2 million people.
• Watch Country Kenya Kenya is a country in East Africa, crossed by the equator. It has the snow-capped Mount Kenya, the deep Great Rift Valley, Lake Victoria and a long Indian Ocean coast, and about 54 million people live there, many of them speaking Swahili.
• Watch Country Liberia Liberia is a country on the Atlantic coast of West Africa, with long beaches, many rivers and lush rainforest. It was founded in the 1820s as a home for formerly enslaved people from the United States and became independent in 1847. About 5.8 million people lived there in 2026.
• Watch Country Libya Libya is a large country in North Africa, on the Mediterranean Sea. About nine-tenths of it is the plateau of the Sahara, and it has no rivers that flow all year. Most people live along the coast, in cities such as Tripoli and Benghazi.
• Watch Country Madagascar Madagascar is the fourth-largest island in the world, in the Indian Ocean off southeastern Africa. It split from other land more than 60 million years ago, so many of its plants and animals, such as its lemurs, live nowhere else. About 32.7 million people lived there in 2025.
• Watch Country Malawi Malawi is a narrow country in southeastern Africa that curves along the Great Rift Valley. Lake Malawi, one of the deepest lakes in the world, covers more than a fifth of the country, and it is home to hundreds of kinds of colorful fish. About 21 million people lived there in 2026.
• Watch Country Mali Mali is one of the largest countries in Africa. Its north is part of the Sahara, its middle is the dry Sahel, and its south has savanna. The Niger River flows through it, and long ago great empires grew rich here from trade in gold. About 25.2 million people lived there in 2025.
• Watch Country Mauritania Mauritania is a large country in northwest Africa where the Sahara meets the Atlantic Ocean. Dunes cover about half the land, ancient trading towns stand by desert oases, and many kinds of migrating birds spend the winter on its coast. About 5.3 million people live there.
• Watch Country Morocco Morocco is a country in the northwest corner of Africa, with coasts on both the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The Atlas Mountains cross its center, and its 2024 census counted about 36.8 million people, in cities such as Casablanca, Rabat, Fez and Marrakesh and in mountain villages.
• Watch Country Mozambique Mozambique stretches along the Indian Ocean coast of southeastern Africa. The great Zambezi River cuts through its middle, its beaches face the island of Madagascar, and parks like Gorongosa are home to elephants and lions. About 35.6 million people lived there in 2025, and Portuguese is the official language.
• Watch Country Namibia Namibia lies on the southwestern coast of Africa. The Namib, a desert of huge dunes kept alive by sea fog, runs along its coast, a high plateau with farms and wildlife fills its middle, and the dry Kalahari lies to the east. Namibia became independent in 1990.
• Watch Country Niger Niger is a large, landlocked country in West Africa, named after the Niger River. The Sahara Desert covers the north, the drier grasslands of the Sahel cross the middle, and most people live and farm in the south. About 27.9 million people lived there in 2025.
• Watch Country Nigeria Nigeria is a large country in West Africa, named after the Niger River. It has rainforests in the south and dry grasslands in the north, and it is Africa's most populous country, with about 238 million people in 2025 who speak hundreds of languages.
• Watch Country Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo lies on the equator in west-central Africa. Thick rainforests cover much of it, the mighty Congo River forms its eastern border, and it has a short coast on the Atlantic Ocean. Forest elephants and gorillas live in its parks. About 6.5 million people lived there in 2025, most of them in two cities.
• Watch Country Rwanda Rwanda is a small, landlocked country in east-central Africa, just south of the equator. It is often called the land of a thousand hills. Mountain gorillas live among its volcanoes in the northwest, Lake Kivu lies on its western edge, and about 14.6 million people lived there in 2025.
• Watch Country Senegal Senegal is a country at the far western tip of Africa, on the Atlantic Ocean. Its capital, Dakar, sits on the westernmost point of the continent. About 19 million people live there, and the Senegal River, wetlands full of birds and quiet mangrove deltas make it a place of water as well as dry grassland.
• Watch Country Sierra Leone Sierra Leone is a country on the Atlantic coast of West Africa. Its name comes from Portuguese words meaning Lion Mountains, after the hills around Freetown's huge natural harbor. Rainforests, rivers and mangrove swamps are home to chimpanzees and pygmy hippos, and the 2021 census counted about 7.5 million people.
• Watch Country Somalia Somalia is the easternmost country of Africa, on the Horn of Africa between the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. Most of it is flat, hot and dry, with thornbush savanna, and camels, goats, sheep and cattle are its greatest farm wealth. Its capital is Mogadishu.
• Watch Country South Africa South Africa is the southernmost country in Africa, with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Indian Ocean on the other. A high plateau covers most of it, about 63.5 million people (2026) live there, and it has 12 official languages and three capital cities.
• Watch Country Sudan Sudan is a large country in northeastern Africa. The Blue Nile and the White Nile meet at its capital, Khartoum, and the river flows north through the desert. Long ago, the kingdom of Kush built pyramids, temples and palaces along the Nile here.
• Watch Country Tanzania Tanzania is a country in East Africa, just south of the Equator, on the Indian Ocean. It has Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, deep lakes in the East African Rift, and the Serengeti, where huge herds of wildebeest travel each year.
• Watch Country The Gambia The Gambia is the smallest country on Africa's mainland, a narrow strip of land on both banks of the Gambia River. Except for a short Atlantic coast, it is surrounded by Senegal. More than 500 kinds of birds live there, and about 2.8 million people lived there in 2025.
• Watch Country Togo Togo is a small, narrow country in West Africa. It has only 51 kilometers of coast on the Gulf of Guinea but stretches about 515 kilometers inland, from beaches and lagoons to the Togo Mountains and northern savanna. About 8.6 million people lived there in 2025, and Lomé is the capital and main port.
• Watch Country Tunisia Tunisia is a small country in North Africa, with the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its green, rainy north turns into dry steppes and then Sahara desert in the south, and about 12 million people lived there in 2024, many of them in the capital, Tunis.
• Watch Country Uganda Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa, on the shores of Lake Victoria, Africa's largest freshwater lake. The Victoria Nile flows out of the lake here, snowy mountains rise in the west, and its forests are home to mountain gorillas and chimpanzees. About 51.4 million people lived there in 2025.
• Watch Country Zambia Zambia is a landlocked country on a high plateau in south-central Africa, named after the Zambezi River. On its southern border the Zambezi thunders over Victoria Falls. About 22 million people live there, and its copper mines have long made it one of Africa's great copper producers.
• Watch Country Zimbabwe Zimbabwe is a landlocked country in southern Africa, high on a wide plateau between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It shares Victoria Falls with Zambia, and its name is a Shona word meaning "stone houses", the name of the great stone city of Great Zimbabwe.