Member states of the African Union

Member states of the African Union in green.

The member states of the African Union are the 54 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 replaced the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), and AU membership was open to all OAU member states. From an original membership of 36 states when the OAU was established on 25 May 1963, there have been eighteen successive enlargements – the largest occurring on 18 July 1975 when four states joined. South Sudan is the newest member state, having joined on 27 July 2011. The only African United Nations member state which could join, or more precisely re-activate its membership, is Morocco, which withdrew following the organization's acceptance of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, whose status is disputed, as a member state. Spain, primarily a European country, maintains sovereignty over Spanish North Africa and the Canary Islands off the coast, but is only accredited to the African Union.^[2]

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

Current members

  Membership suspended

Flag	African Union State	Accession	Population	Area (km²)	Capital	Language(s)	Notes
	Algeria	1963-05-25	38,813,722	2,381,741	Algiers	Arabic
	Angola	1979-02-11	16,941,000	1,246,700	Luanda	Portuguese
	Benin	1963-05-25	6,769,914	112,622	Porto-Novo	French
	Botswana	1966-10-31	1,639,833	600,370	Gaborone	English Setswana
	Burkina Faso	1963-05-25	13,228,000	274,000	Ouagadougou	French
	Burundi	1963-05-25	3,589,434	27,830	Bujumbura	French Kirundi
	Cameroon	1963-05-25	17,795,000	475,442	Yaoundé	English French
	Cape Verde	1975-07-18	503,000	4,033	Praia	Portuguese
	Central African Republic	1963-05-25	4,216,666	622,984	Bangui	French Sango
	Chad	1963-05-25	10,780,600	1,284,000	N'Djamena	Arabic French
	Comoros	1975-07-18	798,000	2,235	Moroni	Arabic Comorian French
	Côte d'Ivoire	1963-05-25	18,373,060	322,460	Yamoussoukro	French
	Democratic Republic of the Congo	1963-05-25	62,600,000	2,344,858	Kinshasa	French
	Djibouti	1977-06-27	496,374	23,200	Djibouti	Arabic French
	Egypt	1963-05-25	86,502,500	1,002,450	Cairo	Arabic
	Equatorial Guinea	1968-10-12	504,000	28,051	Malabo	French Spanish Portuguese
	Eritrea	1993-05-24	4,401,009	117,600	Asmara	Arabic Tigrinya
	Ethiopia	1963-05-25	96,633,458	1,104,300	Addis Ababa	Amharic
	Gabon	1963-05-25	1,454,867	267,745	Libreville	French
	Gambia	1965-10-01	1,700,000	10,380	Banjul	English
	Ghana	1963-05-25	23,000,000	238,535	Accra	English
	Guinea	1963-05-25	10,211,437	245,857	Conakry	French
	Guinea-Bissau	1973-11-19	1,586,000	36,544	Bissau	Portuguese
	Kenya	1963-12-13	37,953,840	580,367	Nairobi	English Swahili
	Lesotho	1966-10-31	1,795,000	30,355	Maseru	English Sesotho
	Liberia	1963-05-25	3,489,072	111,369	Monrovia	English
	Libya	1963-05-25	6,244,174	1,759,541	Tripoli	Arabic
	Madagascar	1963-05-25	20,042,551	587,041	Antananarivo	French Malagasy
	Malawi	1964-07-13	13,931,831	118,484	Lilongwe	English Chichewa
	Mali	1963-05-25	11,995,402	1,240,192	Bamako	French
	Mauritania	1963-05-25	3,516,806	1,030,700	Nouakchott	Arabic
	Mauritius	1968-08-01	1,264,866	2,040	Port Louis	English
	Mozambique	1975-07-18	21,397,000	801,590	Maputo	Portuguese
	Namibia	1990-06-01	2,088,669	825,418	Windhoek	English
	Niger	1963-05-25	13,272,679	1,267,000	Niamey	French
	Nigeria	1963-05-25	154,729,000	923,768	Abuja	English
	Republic of the Congo	1963-05-25	3,999,000	342,000	Brazzaville	French
	Rwanda	1963-05-25	10,186,063	26,798	Kigali	English French Kinyarwanda
	Sahrawi 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	157,000	964	São Tomé	Portuguese
	Senegal	1963-05-25	11,658,000	196,723	Dakar	French
	Seychelles	1976-06-29	82,247	451	Victoria	English French Seychellois Creole
	Sierra Leone	1963-05-25	6,294,774	71,740	Freetown	English
	Somalia	1963-05-25	9,558,666	637,661	Mogadishu	Arabic Somali
	South Africa	1994-06-06	47,900,000	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	2011-07-27	8,260,490	619,745	Juba	English
	Sudan	1963-05-25	35,482,233	1,886,068	Khartoum	Arabic English
	Swaziland	1968-09-24	1,141,000	17,364	Lobamba (royal and legislative) Mbabane (administrative)	English Swati
	Tanzania	1963-05-25	45,000,000	945,203	Dodoma	English Swahili
	Togo	1963-05-25	6,585,000	56,785	Lomé	French
	Tunisia	1963-05-25	10,937,521	163,610	Tunis	Arabic
	Uganda	1963-05-25	30,900,000	241,038	Kampala	English Swahili
	Zambia	1964-12-16	11,668,000	752,618	Lusaka	English
	Zimbabwe	1980-06-01	13,349,000	390,757	Harare	English Ndebele Shona

Former Members

Flag	Former African Union State	Years of membership	Population	Area (km²)	Capital	Language(s)	Notes
	Morocco	1963-1984	33,848,242	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, as an AU member.[11][12] Announced in July 2016 that it wished to rejoin the organization.[13] Membership application submitted on 22 September 2016.[14]
	Tanganyika	1963-1964	49,000,000	942,433	Dar es Salaam	Swahili English	Merged with Zanzibar on 26 April 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar which was renamed Tanzania on 1 November 1964
	Zanzibar		1,303,569	2,461	Zanzibar City		Merged with Tanganyika on 26 April 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar which was renamed Tanzania on 1 November 1964

Accession

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.^[15] Following the announcement of the results of the South Sudanese independence referendum, an official AU statement noted "the AU will be keen, at the end of the interim period, on 9 July 2011, to welcome into its ranks the 54th member state of the Union".^[16] It's the AU's most recent member state. Morocco is the only other African Nation (other than dependencies that are considered within the African Continent) that could join (or, more precisely, re-activate its membership).

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. 2012-07-13. Retrieved 2014-05-27.
2. http://au.int/en/partnerships/others
3. "The European Union and the African Union. A statistical portrait." (PDF). Eurostat. Retrieved 2014-09-13.
4. "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. September 26, 2015. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
5. Dixon, Robyn (2013-03-25). "African Union suspends Central African Republic after coup". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2013-03-25.
6. "AU readmits Central African Republic". News24. 2016-04-07. Retrieved 2016-04-21.
7. "African Union suspends Egypt after leaders overthrown". ITV. 2013-07-05. Retrieved 2013-07-05.
8. "AU ends Egypt, Guinea Bissau suspension after elections". Reuters. 2014-06-18. Retrieved 2014-06-19.
9. "Guinea-Bissau suspended from African Union". Al Jazeera English. 2012-04-17. Retrieved 2014-06-19.
10. "African Union ends Madagascar suspension". Agence France-Presse. 2014-01-27. Retrieved 2014-01-27.
11. BBC News (8 July 2001) – "OAU considers Morocco readmission". Retrieved 9 July 2006.
12. Arabic News (9 July 2002) – "South African paper says Morocco should be one of the AU and NEPAD leaders". Retrieved 9 July 2006
13. "Moroccan Envoy Meets with Kenyan President Over Rejoining African Union". Voice of America. 2016-07-15. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
14. "Morocco officially requests to join the African Union". African Union. 2016-09-23. Retrieved 2016-10-01.
15. "African Union Welcomes South Sudan as the 54th Member State of the Union", African Union, 2011-07-27. Retrieved on 2011-07-29.
16. "The African Union Applauds the Success of the Referendum in Southern Sudan". au.int. 9 February 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2011.