AngolaCapital: Luanda. Seventh largest country in Africa. The total includes the Cabinda exclave. Independent from Portugal since 1975.
CameroonCapital: Yaoundé. Independent since 1 January 1960. The first of the 17 colonies that became independent in that one year.
Central African RepublicCapital: Bangui. Landlocked, with six neighbors. Independent from France since 13 August 1960.
ChadCapital: N'Djamena. The largest landlocked country in Africa. The fifth largest overall. Independent from France since 1960.
Democratic Republic of the CongoCapital: Kinshasa. Second largest country in Africa, about 2.34 million square kilometers. Independent from Belgium since 30 June 1960.
Equatorial GuineaCapital: Ciudad de la Paz. It took over from Malabo in January 2026. Independent from Spain since 12 October 1968.
GabonCapital: Libreville. Independent from France since 17 August 1960. The last of four neighbors in French Equatorial Africa to become independent within one week.
Republic of the CongoCapital: Brazzaville. Independent from France since 15 August 1960. Congo-Brazzaville is accepted as a typed answer.
São Tomé and PríncipeCapital: São Tomé. Second smallest country in Africa, about 1,000 square kilometers.
How this list was compiled: The 54 countries are the African member states of the United Nations, read off the member list at https://www.un.org/en/about-us/member-states, checked 2026-09-19. The five regions and which country sits in which: United Nations Statistics Division, Standard country or area codes for statistical use (M49), https://unstats.un.org/unsd/methodology/m49/, checked 2026-09-19. Capitals: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependent_territories_in_Africa, checked 2026-09-19; Ciudad de la Paz as the capital of Equatorial Guinea since January 2026 and independence on 12 October 1968: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equatorial_Guinea, checked 2026-09-19. Areas and area ranks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African_countries_by_area, checked 2026-09-19. Landlocked countries, their neighbor counts, Lesotho as one of three countries inside a single neighbor, Ethiopia as the most populous landlocked country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landlocked_country, checked 2026-09-19. Dates of independence and colonial names: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decolonisation_of_Africa, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_national_independence and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_date_of_formation, checked 2026-09-19; the 17 colonies that became independent in 1960: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_of_Africa, checked 2026-09-19. Sinai counted with Asia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependent_territories_in_Asia, checked 2026-09-19. Sub-Saharan Africa is the M49 grouping of the same name: the 48 countries of Eastern, Middle, Southern and Western Africa, which leaves out the six of Northern Africa. Tanzania: Dodoma is the capital and Dar es Salaam the former capital and largest city (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanzania and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodoma, checked 2026-09-19); the Africa list above still prints the older wording. Ivory Coast, Benin and Burundi, the official capital and the second city: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_multiple_capitals, checked 2026-09-19; Abidjan and Bujumbura are accepted as typed capitals, Cotonou is not. Gitega as the political capital since 16 January 2019, and Bujumbura as the largest city and economic capital: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gitega and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burundi, checked 2026-09-19. Cotonou and Abidjan as largest cities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benin and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivory_Coast, checked 2026-09-19. Where two sources gave different days for one event, only the year is stated. Two shapes of the drawing that the points file flags as disputed are not on this list and are never asked. Positions in the hints were read off the drawing. Hints and detail lines written for this site. Licence: own work
The drawing: Drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_50m_admin_0_countries_lakes (scale 1:50,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_50m_admin_0_countries_lakes.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection centred on 1°N 17°E. Outlines simplified; small islands are left out. One place is too small to draw at this scale and shown as a dot. Licence: public domain (Natural Earth terms of use: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/)
How it works
This blank map of Central Africa numbers nine countries, from Chad in the north to Angola in the south. The rest of Africa is drawn without numbers.
Read the full guide
Blank, numbered or named
The sheet opens blank. Choose Numbered to put a number on each of the nine countries, or Named for their names, then press Print this map. Print the answer key gives the names on a sheet of its own.
Two Congos and two small countries
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is the largest shape on the sheet; the Republic of the Congo is the narrower country to its west. Equatorial Guinea and São Tomé and Príncipe are too small to write inside, so each has a ring joined by a line.
Chad and the Central African Republic have no coast. Label those two first, then work down the Atlantic side from Cameroon to Angola.
Questions and answers
Which countries are in Central Africa?
On this map, the nine the United Nations files under Middle Africa: Angola, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and São Tomé and Príncipe.
Why are Burundi and Rwanda not numbered?
Some lists of Central Africa add them, but the United Nations files both under Eastern Africa. They are drawn on this sheet, east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, without numbers.
Which is the largest country in Central Africa?
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, the second-largest country in Africa after Algeria. Chad, the largest African country with no coast, comes next on this sheet.