Location: Western Africa, bordering the South Atlantic Ocean, between Angola and Gabon

Language: French (official), Lingala and Monokutuba (lingua franca trade languages), many local languages and dialects (of which Kikongo has the most users)

Currency: 1 Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (CFAF) = 100 centimes

Population: 2,716,814

Natural Hazards: seasonal flooding

Import: intermediate manufactures, capital equipment,
construction materials, foodstuffs, petroleum products

Export: petroleum 50%, lumber, plywood, sugar, cocoa,
coffee, diamonds

Industries: petroleum extraction, cement kilning, lumbering, brewing, sugar milling, palm oil, soap, cigarette making

Transportation:
Railways:
total: 795 km (includes 285 km private track)
narrow gauge: 795 km 1.067-m gauge (1995 est.)

Highways:
total: 12,800 km
paved: 1,242 km
unpaved: 11,558 km (1996 est.)

Waterways: the Congo and Ubangi (Oubangui) Rivers provide 1,120 km of
commercially navigable water transport; other rivers are used for local traffic only

Ports & Harbors: Brazzaville, Impfondo, Ouesso, Oyo, Pointe-Noire

Location: Southern Africa, island in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar

Language: French (official), Creole widely used

Currency: 1 French franc (F) = 100 centimes

Population: 717,723

Natural Hazards: periodic, devastating cyclones (December to April); Piton de la Fournaise on the southeastern coast is an active volcano

Import: manufactured goods, food, beverages, tobacco,
machinery and transportation equipment, raw materials, and petroleum products

Export: sugar 63%, rum and molasses 4%, perfume essences 2%, lobster 3%

Industries: sugar, rum, cigarettes, handicraft items, flower oil extraction

Transportation:
Railways: 0 km

Highways:
total: 2,784 km
paved: 2,187 km
unpaved: 597 km

Ports & Harbors: Le Port, Pointe des Galets

Location: Central Africa, east of Democratic Republic of the Congo

Language: Kinyarwanda (official) universal Bantu vernacular, French (official), English (official), Kiswahili (Swahili) used in commercial centers

Currency: 1 Rwandan franc (RF) = 100 centimes

Population: 8,154,933

Natural Hazards: periodic droughts; the volcanic Birunga mountains are in the northwest along the border with Democratic Republic of the Congo

Import: foodstuffs, machinery and equipment, steel, petroleum products, cement and construction material

Export: coffee 55%, tea 21%, hides, tin ore

Industries: production of cement, processing of agricultural products, small-scale beverage production, manufacture of soap, furniture, shoes, plastic goods, textiles, cigarettes

Transportation:
Railways: 0 km

Highways:
total: 12,000 km
paved: 1,000 km
unpaved: 11,000 km

Waterways: Lac Kivu navigable by shallow-draft barges and native craft

Ports & Harbors: Cyangugu, Gisenyi, Kibuye

Location: Western Africa, islands in the Gulf of Guinea, straddling the Equator, west of Gabon

Language: Portuguese (official)

Currency: 1 dobra (Db) = 100 centimos

Population: 154,878

Natural Hazards: NA

Import: machinery and electrical equipment, food products,
petroleum products

Export: cocoa 90%, copra, coffee, palm oil (1997)

Industries: light construction, textiles, soap, beer; fish processing; timber

Transportation:
Railways: 0 km

Highways:
total: 320 km
paved: 218 km
unpaved: 102 km

Ports & Harbors: Santo Antonio, Sao Tome

Location: Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Guinea-Bissau and Mauritania

Language: French (official), Wolof, Pulaar, Diola, Mandingo

Currency: 1 Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (CFAF) = 100 centimes

Population: 10,051,930

Natural Hazards: lowlands seasonally flooded; periodic droughts

Import: foods and beverages, consumer goods, capital goods, petroleum products

Export: fish, ground nuts (peanuts), petroleum products,
phosphates, cotton

Industries: agricultural and fish processing, phosphate mining, fertilizer production, petroleum refining, construction materials

Transportation:
Railways:
total: 904 km
narrow gauge: 904 km 1.000-meter gauge (70 km double track)

Highways:
total: 14,576 km
paved: 4,271 km
unpaved: 10,305 km

Waterways: 897 km total; 785 km on the Senegal river, and 112 km on the
Saloum river

Ports & Harbors: Dakar, Kaolack, Matam, Podor, Richard-Toll, Saint-Louis, Ziguinchor

Location: Eastern Africa, group of islands in the Indian Ocean, northeast of Madagascar

Language: English (official), French (official), Creole

Currency: 1 Seychelles rupee (SRe) = 100 cents

Population: 79,164

Natural Hazards: lies outside the cyclone belt, so severe storms are rare; short droughts possible

Import: manufactured goods, food, petroleum products,
tobacco, beverages, machinery and transportation equipment

Export: fish, cinnamon bark, copra, petroleum products
(reexports)

Industries: fishing; tourism; processing of coconuts and vanilla, coir (coconut fiber) rope, boat building, printing, furniture; beverages

Transportation:
Railways: 0 km

Highways:
total: 280 km
paved: 176 km
unpaved: 104 km

Ports & Harbors: Victoria

Location: Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Guinea
and Liberia

Language: English (official, regular use limited to literate minority), Mende (principal vernacular in the south), Temne (principal vernacular in the north), Krio (English-based Creole, spoken by the descendents of freed Jamaican slaves who were settled in the Freetown area, a lingua franca and a first language for 10% of the population but understood by 95%)

Currency: 1 leone (Le) = 100 cents

Population: 5,296,651

Natural Hazards: dry, sand-laden harmattan winds blow from the Sahara (November to May); sandstorms, dust storms

Import: foodstuffs, machinery and equipment, fuels and
lubricants

Export: diamonds, rutile, cocoa, coffee, fish

Industries: mining (diamonds); small-scale manufacturing (beverages, textiles, cigarettes, footwear); petroleum refining

Transportation:
Railways:
total: 84 km used on a limited basis because the mine at Marampa is closed
narrow gauge: 84 km 1.067-m gauge

Highways:
total: 11,700 km
paved: 1,287 km
unpaved: 10,413 km

Waterways: 800 km; 600 km navigable year round

Ports & Harbors: Bonthe, Freetown, Pepel

Location: Eastern Africa, bordering the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, east of Ethiopia

Language: Somali (official), Arabic, Italian, English

Currency: 1 Somali shilling (So. Sh.) = 100 cents

Population: 7,140,643

Natural Hazards: recurring droughts; frequent dust storms over eastern plains in summer

Import: manufactures, petroleum products, foodstuffs,
construction materials

Export: livestock, bananas, hides, fish

Industries: a few small industries, including sugar refining, textiles, petroleum refining (mostly shut down)

Transportation:
Railways: 0 km

Highways:
total: 22,100 km
paved: 2,608 km
unpaved: 19,492 km

Ports & Harbors: Bender Cassim (Boosaaso), Berbera, Chisimayu (Kismaayo), Merca, Mogadishu

Location: Southern Africa, at the southern tip of the continent of Africa

Language: 11 official languages, including Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu

Currency: 1 rand (R) = 100 cents

Population: 43,426,386

Natural Hazards: prolonged droughts

Import: machinery, transport equipment, chemicals, petroleum products, textiles, scientific instruments

Export: gold 20%, other minerals and metals 20%-25%, food 5%, chemicals 3%

Industries: mining (world's largest producer of platinum, gold, chromium), automobile assembly, metalworking, machinery, textile, iron and steel, chemical, fertilizer, foodstuffs

Transportation:
Railways:
total: 21,431 km
narrow gauge: 20,995 km 1.067-m gauge (9,087 km electrified); 436 km
0.610-m gauge

Highways:
total: 331,265 km
paved: 137,475 km (including 1,142 km of expressways)
unpaved: 193,790 km

Ports & Harbors:
Cape Town, Durban, East London, Mosselbaai, Port
Elizabeth, Richards Bay, Saldanha

Location: Northern Africa, bordering the Red Sea, between Egypt and Eritrea

Language: Arabic (official), Nubian, Ta Bedawie, diverse dialects of Nilotic, Nilo-Hamitic, Sudanic languages, English note: program of Arabization in process

Currency: 1 Sudanese pound (£Sd) = 100 piastres

Population: 34,475,690

Natural Hazards: dust storms

Import: foodstuffs, petroleum products, manufactured goods, machinery and equipment, medicines and chemicals, textiles

Export: cotton 23%, sesame 22%, livestock/meat 13%, gum
arabic 5%

Industries: cotton ginning, textiles, cement, edible oils, sugar, soap distilling, shoes, petroleum refining

Transportation:
Railways:
total: 5,516 km
narrow gauge: 4,800 km 1.067-m gauge; 716 km 1.6096-m gauge plantation
line

Highways:
total: 11,900 km
paved: 4,320 km
unpaved: 7,580 km

Waterways: 5,310 km navigable

Ports & Harbors: Juba, Khartoum, Kusti, Malakal, Nimule, Port Sudan, Sawakin

Location: Southern Africa, between Mozambique and South Africa siSwati (official)

Language:English

Currency: 1 lilangeni (E) = 100 cents

Population: 985,335

Natural Hazards: NA

Import: motor vehicles, machinery, transport equipment,
foodstuffs, petroleum products, chemicals

Export: soft drink concentrates, sugar, wood pulp, cotton yarn, citrus and canned fruit

Industries: mining (coal and asbestos), wood pulp, sugar, soft drink concentrates

Transportation:
Railways:
total: 297 km; note—includes 71 km which are not in use
narrow gauge: 297 km 1.067-m gauge

Highways:
total: 3,810 km
paved: NA km
unpaved: NA km

Ports & Harbors: none

Location: Eastern Africa, bordering the Indian Ocean, between Kenya and Mozambique

Language: Kiswahili or Swahili (official), Kiunguju (name for Swahili in Zanzibar), English (official, primary language of commerce, administration, and higher education), Arabic (widely spoken in Zanzibar), many local languages
note: Kiswahili (Swahili) is the mother tongue of the Bantu people living in Zanzibar and nearby coastal Tanzania; although Kiswahili is Bantu in structure and
origin, its vocabulary draws on a variety of sources, including Arabic and English, and it has become the lingua franca of central and eastern Africa; the first language
of most people is one of the local languages

Currency: 1 Tanzanian shilling (TSh) = 100 cents

Population: 31,270,820

Natural Hazards: the tsetse fly; flooding on the central plateau during the rainy season; drought

Import: consumer goods, machinery and transportation
equipment, industrial raw materials, crude oil

Export: coffee, manufactured goods, cotton, cashew nuts,
minerals, tobacco, sisal

Industries: primarily agricultural processing (sugar, beer, cigarettes, sisal twine), diamond and gold mining, oil refining, shoes, cement, textiles, wood products, fertilizer, salt

Transportation:
Railways:
total: 3,569 km
narrow gauge: 2,600 km 1.000-m gauge; 969 km 1.067-m gauge the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA), which operates 1,860 km of 1.067-m narrow gauge track between Dar es Salaam and Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia (of which 969 km are in Tanzania and 891 km are in Zambia) is not a part of Tanzania Railways Corporation; because of the difference in gauge, this system does not connect to Tanzania Railways

Highways:
total: 88,200 km
paved: 3,704 km
unpaved: 84,496 km

Waterways: Lake Tanganyika, Lake Victoria, Lake Nyasa
 

Ports & Harbors: Bukoba, Dar es Salaam, Kigoma, Kilwa Masoko, Lindi, Mtwara, Mwanza, Pangani, Tanga, Wete, Zanzibar

Location: Western Africa, bordering the Bight of Benin, between Benin and Ghana

Language: French (official and the language of commerce), Ewe and Mina (the two major African languages in the south), Kabye (sometimes spelled Kabiye) and Dagomba (the two major African languages in the north)

Currency: 1 Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (CFAF) = 100 centimes

Population: 5,081,413

Natural Hazards: hot, dry harmattan wind can reduce visibility in north during winter; periodic droughts

Import: machinery and equipment, consumer goods, petroleum products

Export: cotton, phosphates, coffee, cocoa

Industries: phosphate mining, agricultural processing, cement; handicrafts, textiles, beverages

Transportation:
Railways:
total: 525 km
narrow gauge: 525 km 1.000-m gauge

Highways:
total: 7,520 km
paved: 2,376 km
unpaved: 5,144 km
Waterways: 50 km Mono river

Ports & Harbors: Kpeme, Lome

Location: Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Algeria and Libya

Language: Arabic (official and one of the languages of commerce), French (commerce)

Currency: 1 Tunisian dinar (TD) = 1,000 millimes

Population: 9,513,603

Natural Hazards: NA

Import: industrial goods and equipment 57%, hydrocarbons 13%, food 12%, consumer goods

Export: hydrocarbons, textiles, agricultural products, phosphates and chemicals

Industries: petroleum, mining (particularly phosphate and iron ore), tourism, textiles, footwear, food, beverages

Transportation:
Railways:
total: 2,260 km
standard gauge: 492 km 1.435-m gauge
narrow gauge: 1,758 km 1.000-m gauge
dual gauge: 10 km 1.000-m and 1.435-m gauges (three rails)

Highways:
total: 23,100 km
paved: 18,226 km
unpaved: 4,874 km

Ports & Harbors:
Bizerte, Gabes, La Goulette, Sfax, Sousse, Tunis, Zarzis