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List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Africa

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 28, 2026
Entity authorityQ228201 ↗
Source-derived summary

This is a list of sovereign states and dependent territories in Africa. It includes fully recognised states, states with limited or zero recognition, and dependent territories of both African and non-African states. It lists 56 sovereign states (54 of which are member states of the United Nations), two non-sovereign (dependent) territories of non-African sovereign states, and nine sub-national regions of non-African sovereign states. Malta and parts of France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain are located on the African continental plate, some considerably closer to the African mainland than the European mainland but, politically, are generally considered to be European by convention. Egypt, although extending into Asia through the Sinai Peninsula, is considered an African state.

Sovereign states

Recognised sovereign states

The following 54 fully recognised states are all members of the United Nations and the African Union.

Sovereign states with limited international recognition

The following two entities have declared themselves to be sovereign states and are in control of some territory but have limited recognition from other states. Neither entity is a member state of the United Nations, although the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is a member of the African Union.

Non-sovereign territories

There are currently 11 non-sovereign territories in Africa. Except two Spanish autonomous cities and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, all the remaining territories are islands off the continent's coast.

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The public source identifies “List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Africa” as wikimedia list article. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around List, sovereign and states.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current 222-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with List, sovereign and states providing the first useful test.
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This entry incorporates text from “List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Africa” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.