Jump to content

Regions of the African Union

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 109.134.111.202 (talk) at 15:28, 10 December 2022 (North). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Regions of the AU:
 North 
 Southern 
 East 
 West Zone A & B 
 Central 
Note that the African Union includes the African diaspora as a region and that Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa are part of Spain.

The member states of the African Union (AU) are divided into five geographic regions of the African Union.[1] The African diaspora, which includes people of African descent living outside of the African continent, such as the Americas, Australia, Asia, and Europe, has been officially recognized by the AU as its sixth region.[2]

List (In alphabetical order)

North

# Member state Capital Area (km2)
1  Algeria Algiers 2,381,740
2  Egypt Cairo 1,001,451
3  Libya Tripoli 1,759,540
4  Morocco Rabat 446,550
5  Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara) El Aaiún (proclaimed) 266,060
6  Tunisia Tunis 163,610

South

# Member state Capital(s) Area (km2)
1  Angola Luanda 1,246,700
2  Botswana Gaborone 581,726
3  Eswatini Mbabane 17,364
4  Lesotho Maseru 30,355
5  Malawi Lilongwe 118,484
6  Mozambique Maputo 801,590
7  Namibia Windhoek 824,116
8  South Africa Pretoria
Cape Town
Bloemfontein
1,221,037
9  Zambia Lusaka 752,618
10  Zimbabwe Harare 390,757

East

# Member state Capital Area (km2)
1  Comoros Moroni 2,235
2  Djibouti Djibouti 23,200
3  Eritrea Asmara 117,600
4  Ethiopia Addis Ababa 1,104,300
5  Kenya Nairobi 580,367
6  Madagascar Antananarivo 587,041
7  Mauritius Port Louis 2,040
8  Rwanda Kigali 26,798
9  Seychelles Victoria 451
10  Somalia Mogadishu 637,661
11  South Sudan Juba 619,745
12  Sudan Khartoum 1,886,068
13  Tanzania Dodoma 945,087
14  Uganda Kampala 236,040

West

# Member state Capital Area (km2)
1  Benin Porto-Novo 112,622
2  Burkina Faso Ouagadougou 274,000
3  Cabo Verde Praia 4,033
4  Côte d'Ivoire Yamoussoukro 322,462
5  Gambia Banjul 10,380
6  Ghana Accra 238,534
7  Guinea-Bissau Bissau 36,125
8  Guinea Conakry 245,857
9  Liberia Monrovia 111,369
10  Mauritania Nouakchott 1,030,700
11  Mali Bamako 1,240,192
12  Niger Niamey 1,267,000
13  Nigeria Abuja 923,768
14  Senegal Dakar 196,723
15  Sierra Leone Freetown 71,740
16  Togo Lomé 56,785

Central

# Member state Capital Area (km2)
1  Burundi Gitega 27,834
2  Cameroon Yaounde 475,442
3  Central African Republic Bangui 622,984
4  Chad N'Djamena 1,284,000
5  Congo Republic Brazzaville 342,000
6  DR Congo Kinshasa 2,345,409
7  Equatorial Guinea Malabo 28,051
8  Gabon Libreville 267,667
9  São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé 964

African diaspora

In the Constitutive Act of the African Union,[3] under amended Article 3(q) of the Act (Objectives), the following is stated regarding the African diaspora: “invite and encourage the full participation of the African Diaspora as an important part of our continent, in building the African Union.”[4] Additionally, the African Union provides definition for its concept of the African diaspora as the following: “The African Diaspora consists of peoples of African origin living outside the continent, irrespective of their citizenship and nationality and who are willing to contribute to the development of the continent and the building of the African Union.”[5]

In 2016, the African Union denied membership to Haiti due to membership admission, as per Article 29.1 of the Constitutive Act of the African Union, being limited to any “African State.”[6][3]

In the African Union Handbook (2021), persons who have been appointed to represent the African diaspora at the Assembly of the African Union have been granted the status of observer.[7] More specifically, the African Union Handbook (2021) states:

In January 2008, the Executive Council suggested that the African diaspora be treated as Africa’s sixth region and its participation in the AU’s organs and activities be strengthened (EX.CL/Dec.406(XII)). The Assembly has recognised the diaspora as a substantive entity contributing to the economic and social development of the continent and has invited its representatives as observers to Assembly sessions (see Assembly/AU/Res.1(XVIII) of January 2012).[7]

The African Union has also established regional institutions, such as the Western Hemisphere African Diaspora Network, and international institutions, such as the Economic, Social and Cultural Council, to facilitate African diaspora relations.[2] Additionally, the African Union works together with AfricaRecruit, the Caribbean Community and Common Market, the Commonwealth Business Council, the International Organization for Migration, and the World Bank to facilitate African diaspora relations, regionally and internationally.[2] Furthermore, individual countries (e.g., Ghana, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa) in Africa have also undertaken national efforts to facilitate African diaspora relations, internationally.[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Appendix 1: AU Regions, Strengthening PoPular ParticiPation in the African Union" (PDF). OSISA and Oxfam. 2009. p. 62. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
  2. ^ a b c d Kamei, Seraphina (2011). "Diaspora as the 'Sixth Region of Africa': An Assessment of the African Union Initiative, 2002–2010". Diaspora Studies. 4 (1): 61. doi:10.1080/09739572.2011.10597353 (inactive 31 July 2022). S2CID 152812717.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2022 (link)
  3. ^ a b "Constitutive Act of the African Union" (PDF). African Union. African Union. 11 July 2000. pp. 5–6, 17.
  4. ^ "Protocol on the Amendments to the Constitutive Act of the African Union" (PDF). African Union. African Union. 11 July 2003. p. 2.
  5. ^ "Report of the Meeting of Experts from Member States on the Definition of the African Diaspora" (PDF). African Union. African Union. 2 July 2005. pp. 5–6.
  6. ^ "Haiti will not be admitted as African Union Member State at next Summit in Kigali, Rwanda". African Union. African Union. 18 May 2016.
  7. ^ a b "African Union Handbook 2021" (PDF). African Union. African Union. 2021. p. 20.