User:R4000/Africa(Alt)

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< User:R4000

A satellite composite image of Africa

1 Geography
- 1.1 Geographical Facts
2 Languages
3 Territories
4 Dec, 2004 Tsunami
5 HIV Epidemic

[edit] Geography

Main article: Geography of Africa

Africa is the largest continent in the southern hemisphere. It has an estimated area of 30,360,288 km² including the surrounding islands.

Africa is seporated from Europe by the Mediterranean Sea, although it is joined to Asia by the Isthmus of Suez (crossed by the Suez Canel), 130km wide. From the most northern point (Cape Blanc in Tunisia) to the southern point (Cape Agulhas in South Africa) is aproxomatly 8,000 km.

[edit] Geographical Facts

The largest mountain in Africa is Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. (19,335.6 ft).
The largest river in Africa is Nile, Egypt. (6,695 km).
The largest desert in Africa Sahara Desert, crossing Algeria; Libya; Morocco; Western Sahara; Mauritania; Mali; Niger; Chad; Sudan; Eygpt

[edit] Languages

Map showing the distribution of African language families and some major African languages. Afro-Asiatic extends into the Sahel and Southwest Asia. Niger-Congo is divided to show the size of the Bantu sub-family.

Main article: African languages

By most estimates Africa contains well over a thousand languages. There are four major language families native to Africa.

The Afro-Asiatic languages are a language family of about 240 languages.
The Nilo-Saharan language family consists of more than a hundred languages.
The Niger-Congo language family covers much of Sub-Saharan Africa and is probably the largest language family in the world in terms of different languages.
The Khoisan languages number about 50.

With a few notable exceptions in East Africa, nearly all African countries have adopted official languages that originated outside the continent and spread through colonialism or human migration. For example, in numerous countries English and French are used for communication in the public sphere such as government, commerce, education and the media.

[edit] Territories

Regions of Africa. Blue: North Africa, green: West Africa, brown: Central Africa, orange: Horn of Africa, magenta: East Africa, red: Southern Africa.

Political Map of Africa

Name of territory, with flag	Area (km²)	Population (1 July 2002 est.)	Population density (per km²)	Capital
Eastern Africa^[1]:
Burundi	27,830	6,373,002	229.0	Bujumbura
Comoros	2,170	614,382	283.1	Moroni
Djibouti	23,000	472,810	20.6	Djibouti
Eritrea	121,320	4,465,651	36.8	Asmara
Ethiopia	1,127,127	67,673,031	60.0	Addis Ababa
Kenya	582,650	31,138,735	53.4	Nairobi
Madagascar	587,040	16,473,477	28.1	Antananarivo
Malawi	118,480	10,701,824	90.3	Lilongwe
Mauritius	2,040	1,200,206	588.3	Port Louis
Mayotte (France)	374	170,879	456.9	Mamoudzou
Mozambique	801,590	19,607,519	24.5	Maputo
Réunion (France)	2,512	743,981	296.2	Saint-Denis
Rwanda	26,338	7,398,074	280.9	Kigali
Seychelles	455	80,098	176.0	Victoria
Somalia	637,657	7,753,310	12.2	Mogadishu
Tanzania	945,087	37,187,939	39.3	Dodoma
Uganda	236,040	24,699,073	104.6	Kampala
Zambia	752,614	9,959,037	13.2	Lusaka
Zimbabwe	390,580	11,376,676	29.1	Harare
Middle Africa:
Angola	1,246,700	10,593,171	8.5	Luanda
Cameroon	475,440	16,184,748	34.0	Yaoundé
Central African Republic	622,984	3,642,739	5.8	Bangui
Chad	1,284,000	8,997,237	7.0	N'Djamena
Congo	342,000	2,958,448	8.7	Brazzaville
Democratic Republic of the Congo	2,345,410	55,225,478	23.5	Kinshasa
Equatorial Guinea	28,051	498,144	17.8	Malabo
Gabon	267,667	1,233,353	4.6	Libreville
São Tomé and Príncipe	1,001	170,372	170.2	São Tomé
Northern Africa:
Algeria	2,381,740	32,277,942	13.6	Algiers
Egypt^[2]	1,001,450	70,712,345	70.6	Cairo
Libya	1,759,540	5,368,585	3.1	Tripoli
Morocco	446,550	31,167,783	69.8	Rabat
Sudan	2,505,810	37,090,298	14.8	Khartoum
Tunisia	163,610	9,815,644	60.0	Tunis
Western Sahara (Morocco)^[3]	266,000	256,177	1.0	El Aaiún
Southern Europe dependencies in Northern Africa:
Canary Islands (Spain)^[4]	7,492	1,694,477	226.2	Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Ceuta (Spain)^[5]	20	71,505	3,575.2	—
Madeira Islands (Portugal)^[6]	797	245,000	307.4	Funchal
Melilla (Spain)^[7]	12	66,411	5,534.2	—
Southern Africa:
Botswana	600,370	1,591,232	2.7	Gaborone
Lesotho	30,355	2,207,954	72.7	Maseru
Namibia	825,418	1,820,916	2.2	Windhoek
South Africa	1,219,912	43,647,658	35.8	Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Pretoria^[8]
Swaziland	17,363	1,123,605	64.7	Mbabane
Western Africa:
Benin	112,620	6,787,625	60.3	Porto-Novo
Burkina Faso	274,200	12,603,185	46.0	Ouagadougou
Cape Verde	4,033	408,760	101.4	Praia
Côte d'Ivoire	322,460	16,804,784	52.1	Abidjan, Yamoussoukro^[9]
Gambia	11,300	1,455,842	128.8	Banjul
Ghana	239,460	20,244,154	84.5	Accra
Guinea	245,857	7,775,065	31.6	Conakry
Guinea-Bissau	36,120	1,345,479	37.3	Bissau
Liberia	111,370	3,288,198	29.5	Monrovia
Mali	1,240,000	11,340,480	9.1	Bamako
Mauritania	1,030,700	2,828,858	2.7	Nouakchott
Niger	1,267,000	10,639,744	8.4	Niamey
Nigeria	923,768	129,934,911	140.7	Abuja
Saint Helena (UK)	410	7,317	17.8	Jamestown
Senegal	196,190	10,589,571	54.0	Dakar
Sierra Leone	71,740	5,614,743	78.3	Freetown
Togo	56,785	5,285,501	93.1	Lomé
Total	30,368,609	843,705,143	27.8

[edit] Dec, 2004 Tsunami

Affected Countries

Effect on Somalia: Villages and coastal communities in Somalia, as far as 4,500 km (2,800 mi) from the epicentre of the earthquake, were swept away and destroyed by the huge waves. 176 people were confirmed dead, 136 were missing and more than 50,000 have been displaced.
Kenya: Waves struck Kenya causing some minor damage. One person reported drowned at Watamu, near Mombasa ([10]).
South Africa: Casualties: Two reported dead: One boy dead after swimming in the Quinera River at Gonubie, close to East London; an adult dead at Blue Horizon Bay near Port Elizabeth,[11] the furthest point from the epicentre of the earthquake where a tsunami-related death was reported. General observations: Ocean level variance two to three meters outside normal reported in KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape, and a surge of 1.5m was observed as far as Struisbaai in the Western Cape, 8500km from the epicentre of the earthquake. Some steps were taken in South Africa to warn ports and disaster management centres, although full details are not public.[12] Damage: Large concrete blocks were uprooted in East London harbour, where boats also broke from their moorings [13]. Boats and cars were submerged at the Algoa Bay Yacht Club in Port Elizabeth harbour. [14] Durban harbour, Africa's busiest general cargo port and home to the largest and busiest container terminal in the Southern Hemisphere, [15] was closed for some time on 27 December because of unusually strong surges across the entrance channel [16].
Tanzania: Ten killed, an unknown number of people missing. Oil tanker temporarily ran aground in Dar es Salaam harbour, damaging an oil pipeline.
Madagascar: Flooding in low-lying coastal districts. No reported casualties. Waves reported variously as being between 1.6 and 10 metres in height swept through southeastern coastal areas near the towns of Manakara, Sambava and Vohemar — over 1,000 reported homeless. Problems were exacerbated by the approach of Cyclone Chambo. [17]