Sub-Saharan Africa

The continent of Africa is sometimes divided into the predominantly Arab countries in and north of the Sahara desert and the African proper parts south of the Sahara, which is then called sub-Saharan Africa (from sub: under, below, where the western traditional geographic projection has north up)

Sub-Saharan Africa includes 48 nations. Forty-two of these nations are on the mainland. In addition, four island nations in the southwest Indian Ocean (Madagascar, The Comoros, Mauritius, and Seychelles) and two island nations in the Atlantic Ocean (Cape Verde and Sao Tome and Principe) are considered part of Africa.

Countries in sub-Saharan Africa:

Central Africa

• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Republic of the Congo

Eastern Africa

• Burundi
• Comoros
• Djibouti
• Eritrea
• Ethiopia
• Kenya
• Seychelles
• Rwanda
• Somalia -- Somaliland -- Puntland
• Tanzania
• Uganda

Southern Africa

• Angola
• Botswana
• Lesotho
• Madagascar
• Malawi
• Mauritius
• Mozambique
• Namibia
• Reunion
• Swaziland
• South Africa
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

Western Africa

• Benin
• Burkina Faso
• Cameroon
• Cape Verde
• Côte d'Ivoire
• Equatorial Guinea
• Gabon
• The Gambia
• Ghana
• Guinea-Bissau
• Liberia
• Mali
• Niger
• Nigeria
• Sao Tome and Principe
• Senegal
• Sierra Leone
• Togo