Capital Cities in Africa
Africa is the second most populous continent with over 1.1 billion people. About 16 percent of these live in Nigeria (182 million), which is by far the most populous country on the continent. For this reason, the country (in addition to having the largest economy) is often referred to as “the Giant of Africa”.
List of African Capitals (Alphabetically sorted by country):
- Algeria – Algeria
- Angola – Luanda
- Benin – Porto-Novo
- Botswana – Gaborone
- Burkina Faso – Ouagadougou
- Burundi – Bujumbura
- Cameroon – Yaoundé
- Cape Verde – Praia
- Central African Republic – Bangui
- Chad – N’Djamena
- Comoros – Moroni
- Democratic Republic of Congo – Kinshasa
- Djibouti – Djibouti
- Egypt – Cairo
- Equatorial Guinea – Malabo
- Eritrea – Asmara
- Ethiopia – Addis Ababa
- Gabon – Libreville
- Gambia – Banjul
- Ghana – Accra
- Guinea – Conakry
- Guinea-Bissau – Bissau
- Ivory Coast – Yamoussoukro
Did you know? The Basilique Notre-Dame de la Paix, inaugurated by Pope John Paul II in 1990, is the world’s largest church and is located in the Ivory Coast capital of Yamoussoukro.
- Kenya – Nairobi
- Lesotho – Maseru
- Liberia – Monrovia
- Libya – Tripoli
- Madagascar – Antananarivo
- Malawi – Lilongwe
- Mali – Bamako
- Morocco – Discount
- Mauritania – Nouakchott
- Mauritius – Port Louis
- Mozambique – Maputo
- Namibia – Windhoek
- Niger – Niamey
- Nigeria – Abuja
- Republic of Congo – Brazzaville
- Rwanda – Kigali
- São Tomé and Príncipe – São Tomé
- Senegal – Dakar
- Seychelles – Victoria
- Sierra Leone – Freetown
- Somalia – Mogadishu
- Sudan – Khartoum
- Swaziland – Mbabane
- South Africa – Pretoria / Cape Town / Bloemfontein
- South Sudan – Juba
- Tanzania – Dodoma
- Togo – Lomé
- Tunisia – Tunis
- Uganda – Kampala
- Zambia – Lusaka
- Zimbabwe – Harare
11 Facts About Africa
- Measured by area, Africa is the second largest continent (30.3 million km²), with Algeria in the north being the largest country (2.4 million km²) and the small archipelago of Seychelles (455 km²) the smallest.
- Kilimanjaro (5895 masl) in Tanzania is Africa’s highest mountain. Kenya’s highest mountain, Mount Kenya (5199 meters above sea level) is the second highest.
- The Nile that flows through eleven of the continent’s countries is usually considered to be the world’s longest river (the issue has been disputed after Brazilian scientists claim they have found a distant source of the Amazon in southern Peru, which makes it the world’s longest river).
- Lake Victoria is Africa’s largest (68 800 km²) and the fifth largest lake in the world. Lake Tanganyika (which has the former as its source), is the world’s second deepest (1470 meters) and longest lake.
- Lesotho is the only country in the world that is more than 1000 meters high.
- In short: No capitals in the world are at a shorter distance from each other than Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Brazzaville (Republic of Congo). The two cities are located no more than 1.6 km apart on either side of the Congo (which is also Africa’s second longest river).
- Juba, the capital of South Sudan, is the youngest capital of the world (the country was detached from Sudan in the summer of 2011).
- Almost all of northern Africa is covered by the world’s largest warm desert, the Sahara (for example, the Sahara is larger than the continental United States). Sub-Saharan countries are called Sub-Saharan Sahara.
- No, it’s not the lions and crocodiles that you should worry about most when you visit Africa, the big * animal responsible for most people dead on the continent is the hippopotamus. (* Malaria mosquito, however, is responsible for far more deaths than all three together).
- The African elephant (Loxodonta africana) is the world’s largest land mammal (the largest observed weighed over 12 tonnes!). The continent also boasts being home to the world’s highest animal, the giraffe.
- More than half of Africa’s population is under 25 years of age.
