Member states of the African Union

The member states of the African Union are the 55 sovereign states that have ratified or acceded to the Constitutive Act of the African Union to become member states to the African Union (AU).[1] The AU was the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), and AU membership was open to all OAU member states.

Member states of the African Union in green

From an original membership of 36 states when the OAU was established on 25 May 1963, there have been nineteen successive enlargements—the largest occurring on 18 July 1975 when four states joined. Morocco is the newest member state, having joined in January 2017.[2] Morocco was a founder member of the OAU but withdrew in 1984 following the organization's acceptance of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as a member state. Morocco rules over most of the territory, but sovereignty is disputed.

As of 2017, the AU spans the entirety of the African continent, with the exception of Ceuta, Melilla, and the plazas de soberanía. Also excluded are offshore islands that are integral parts of the transcontinental countries of France, Portugal, Spain and Yemen. The 55 member states are grouped into five regions.

The African Union is composed of fifty-two republics and three monarchies. The total population of the AU is 1,068,444,000 (2013).[3]

Current members

State[4]	Accession	Population	Area (km²)	Capital	Language(s)	Notes
Algeria	1963-05-25	43,088,000	2,381,741	Algiers	Arabic Berber
Angola	1979-02-11	30,053,000	1,246,700	Luanda	Portuguese
Benin	1963-05-25	11,722,000	112,622	Porto-Novo	French	Known as Dahomey until 1975.
Botswana	1966-10-31	2,378,000	600,370	Gaborone	English Setswana
Burkina Faso	1963-05-25	20,000,000	274,000	Ouagadougou	French	Known as Upper Volta until 1984. Suspended in September 2015 after a brief military coup.[5]
Burundi	1963-05-25	11,529,000	27,830	Gitega	French Kirundi
Cameroon	1963-05-25	25,506,000	475,442	Yaoundé	English French
Cape Verde	1975-07-18	551,000	4,033	Praia	Portuguese
Central African Republic	1963-05-25	5,181,000	622,984	Bangui	French Sango	Suspended from March 2013 to April 2016 during the 2012–present Central African Republic conflict[6][7]
Chad	1963-05-25	12,802,000	1,284,000	N'Djamena	Arabic French
Comoros	1975-07-18	872,000	2,235	Moroni	Arabic Comorian French
Democratic Republic of the Congo	1963-05-25	91,931,000	2,344,858	Kinshasa	French	Known as Zaire from 1971–1997.
Republic of the Congo	1963-05-25	4,500,000	342,000	Brazzaville	French
Djibouti	1977-06-27	1,078,000	23,200	Djibouti	Arabic French
Egypt	1963-05-25	99,211,000	1,002,450	Cairo	Arabic	Suspended from July 2013 until June 2014 following the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état[8][9]
Equatorial Guinea	1968-10-12	887,000	28,051	Malabo	French Portuguese Spanish
Eritrea	1993-05-24	6,159,000	117,600	Asmara	Arabic Tigrinya	Eritrea returned to the 53-member organization after several years' absence.
Eswatini	1968-09-24	1,177,000	17,364	Lobamba (royal and legislative) Mbabane (administrative)	English Swati	Known as Swaziland from 1968–2018.
Ethiopia	1963-05-25	96,633,458	1,104,300	Addis Ababa	Amharic
Gabon	1963-05-25	2,080,000	267,745	Libreville	French
Gambia	1965-10-01	2,238,000	10,380	Banjul	English
Ghana	1963-05-25	29,742,000	238,535	Accra	English
Guinea	1963-05-25	13,627,000	245,857	Conakry	French	Suspended from 23 December 2008 to January 2011 after a military coup.
Guinea-Bissau	1973-11-19	1,776,000	36,544	Bissau	Portuguese	Suspended from April 2012 until June 2014 following the 2012 Guinea-Bissau coup d'état.[9][10]
Ivory Coast	1963-05-25	26,275,000	322,460	Yamoussoukro	French	Suspended after the 2010–2011 Ivorian crisis.
Kenya	1963-12-13	50,000,000	580,367	Nairobi	English Swahili
Lesotho	1966-10-31	2,048,000	30,355	Maseru	English Sesotho
Liberia	1963-05-25	5,000,000	111,369	Monrovia	English
Libya	1963-05-25	6,578,000	1,759,541	Tripoli	Arabic
Madagascar	1963-05-25	27,055,000	587,041	Antananarivo	French Malagasy	Suspended from December 2001 – 10 July 2003 and from 20 March 2009 – 27 January 2014 after a political crisis.[11]
Malawi	1964-07-13	20,289,000	118,484	Lilongwe	Chichewa English
Mali	1963-05-25	20,161,000	1,240,192	Bamako	French	Suspended from 23 March 2012 until October 2013 after a military coup.
Mauritania	1963-05-25	3,516,806	1,030,700	Nouakchott	Arabic	Suspended 4 August 2005 after a military coup. Presidential elections were held in March 2007. Suspended 6 August 2008 after a military coup.
Mauritius	1968-08-01	1,279,000	2,040	Port Louis	English French
Morocco	1963-05-25 to 1984-11-12 2017-01-31	35,587,000	446,550	Rabat	Arabic Berber	Withdrew from the AU's predecessor, the OAU, in 1984 when a majority of member states supported the admission of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, proclaimed by the Polisario Front in 1976 claiming representation of Western Sahara which is claimed by Morocco, as an AU member.[12][13] AU membership approved in January 2017.[14]
Mozambique	1975-07-18	31,157,000	801,590	Maputo	Portuguese
Namibia	1990-06-01	2,408,000	825,418	Windhoek	English
Niger	1963-05-25	20,000,000	1,267,000	Niamey	French	Suspended 8 February 2010 after a military coup.
Nigeria	1963-05-25	199,206,000	923,768	Abuja	English
Rwanda	1963-05-25	12,432,000	26,798	Kigali	English French Kinyarwanda
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara)	1982-02-22	267,405	266,000	El Aaiun (de jure claimed) Tifariti (de facto temporary)	Arabic Spanish
São Tomé and Príncipe	1975-07-18	222,000	964	São Tomé	Portuguese
Senegal	1963-05-25	16,793,000	196,723	Dakar	French
Seychelles	1976-06-29	96,000	451	Victoria	English French Seychellois Creole
Sierra Leone	1963-05-25	7,737,000	71,740	Freetown	English
Somalia	1963-05-25	11,998,222	637,661	Mogadishu	Arabic Somali
South Africa	1994-06-06	58,333,000	1,221,037	Pretoria (executive) Bloemfontein (judicial) Cape Town (legislative)	Afrikaans English Southern Ndebele Northern Sotho Southern Sotho Swazi Tsonga Tswana Venda Xhosa Zulu
South Sudan	2011-08-15	13,400,000	619,745	Juba	English
Sudan	1963-05-25	43,222,000	1,886,068	Khartoum	Arabic English	Suspended 6 June 2019 due to violence committed by the military following a coup d'état as part of the 2018–19 Sudanese protests.[15] Suspension was lifted three months later on 6 September 2019.[16]
Tanzania	1963-05-25	52,067,000	945,203	Dodoma	English Swahili (Zanzibar: Arabic)	Formed by a merger on 26 April 1964 of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, which had both become members on 25 May 1963.
Togo	1963-05-25	8,205,000	56,785	Lomé	French	Suspended 25 February 2005 after concerns over unconstitutional presidential appointment. Presidential elections were held 4 May 2005.
Tunisia	1963-05-25	11,800,000	163,610	Tunis	Arabic
Uganda	1963-05-25	40,007,000	241,038	Kampala	English Swahili
Zambia	1964-12-16	18,321,000	752,618	Lusaka	English
Zimbabwe	1980-06-01	15,658,000	390,757	Harare	English Ndebele Shona

Former members

Flag	Former African Union State	Years of membership	Population	Area (km²)	Capital	Language(s)	Notes
Tanganyika	Tanganyika	1963–1964	49,000,000	942,433	Dar es Salaam	Swahili English	Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged on 26 April 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, which was renamed Tanzania on 1 November 1964
Zanzibar	Zanzibar		1,303,569	2,461	Zanzibar City

Accession

See also: Enlargement of the African Union

South Africa joined on 6 June 1994 after the end of the apartheid and the April 1994 general election.

South Sudan, which seceded from Sudan on 9 July 2011, joined the AU on 27 July 2011.[17][18]

The AU's most recent member state is Morocco, having joined in January 2017. Morocco withdrew from the OAU in 1984 following the organization's acceptance of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as a member state. Morocco rules over most of the territory, but sovereignty is disputed.

See also

• List of African Union member states by political system

References

1. "LIST OF COUNTRIES WHICH HAVE SIGNED, RATIFIED/ACCEDED TO THE CONSTITUTIVE ACT OF THE AFRICAN UNION" (PDF). African Union. 13 July 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 May 2013. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
2. "Western Sahara welcomes Morocco's African Union membership". 31 January 2017 – via BBC.
3. "The European Union and the African Union. A statistical portrait" (PDF). Eurostat. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 September 2014. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
4. "LIST OF COUNTRIES WHICH HAVE SIGNED, RATIFIED/ACCEDED TO THE CONSTITUTIVE ACT OF THE AFRICAN UNION" (PDF). African Union. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
5. "Communiqué of the 547th meeting of the PSC, at the level of Heads of State and Government, on the situation in Burkina Faso". Peace and Security Council. 26 September 2015. Retrieved 2 February 2016.
6. Dixon, Robyn (25 March 2013). "African Union suspends Central African Republic after coup". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 25 March 2013.
7. "AU readmits Central African Republic". News24. 7 April 2016. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
8. "African Union suspends Egypt after leaders overthrown". ITV. 5 July 2013. Retrieved 5 July 2013.
9. "AU ends Egypt, Guinea Bissau suspension after elections". Reuters. 18 June 2014. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
10. "Guinea-Bissau suspended from African Union". Al Jazeera English. 17 April 2012. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
11. "African Union ends Madagascar suspension". Agence France-Presse. 27 January 2014. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
12. BBC News (8 July 2001) – "OAU considers Morocco readmission". Retrieved 9 July 2006.
13. Arabic News (9 July 2002) – "South African paper says Morocco should be one of the AU and NEPAD leaders" Archived 19 July 2006 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 9 July 2006
14. "Morocco rejoins African Union". Worldbulletin. 30 January 2017. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
15. "African Union suspends Sudan over violence against protesters". The Guardian. 6 June 2019. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
16. "African Union lifts suspension of Sudan", Al Jazeera, 7 September 2019.
17. "African Union Welcomes South Sudan as the 54th Member State of the Union" Archived 12 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine, African Union, 2011-07-27. Retrieved on 29 July 2011.
18. "The African Union Applauds the Success of the Referendum in Southern Sudan". au.int. 9 February 2011. Archived from the original on 1 March 2012. Retrieved 2 April 2011.