BurundiCapital: Gitega, the political capital since 2019. Bujumbura, the largest city, is the economic capital, and both are accepted. Landlocked, with three neighbors. Independent from Belgium since 1 July 1962, the same day as Rwanda.
ComorosCapital: Moroni. One of the four smallest countries in Africa. All four are islands. Independent from France since 1975.
DjiboutiCapital: Djibouti, a city with the same name as the country. Independent from France since 1977.
EritreaCapital: Asmara. Its independence left Ethiopia without a coast. Ethiopia is the large neighbor to the south.
EthiopiaCapital: Addis Ababa. The most populous landlocked country in the world.
KenyaCapital: Nairobi. Independent from the United Kingdom since 1963.
MadagascarCapital: Antananarivo. Africa's largest island country, about 588,000 square kilometers. Independent from France since 26 June 1960.
MalawiCapital: Lilongwe. Landlocked, with three neighbors. Called Nyasaland until it left British rule in 1964.
MauritiusCapital: Port Louis. An island country, a little over 2,000 square kilometers. Independent from the United Kingdom since 12 March 1968.
MozambiqueCapital: Maputo. Sixteenth largest country in Africa, about 800,000 square kilometers.
RwandaCapital: Kigali. Landlocked, with four neighbors. Independent from Belgium since 1 July 1962.
SeychellesCapital: Victoria. The smallest country in Africa, about 450 square kilometers. That is why the map shows it as a dot.
SomaliaCapital: Mogadishu. Independent since 1 July 1960.
South SudanCapital: Juba. Landlocked, with six neighbors. It split from Sudan in 2011.
TanzaniaCapital: Dodoma. Dar es Salaam, the largest city, is the former capital. Tanganyika, the mainland, became independent from the United Kingdom in 1961 and later united with Zanzibar.
UgandaCapital: Kampala. Landlocked, with five neighbors. Independent from the United Kingdom since 9 October 1962.
ZambiaCapital: Lusaka. Landlocked, with eight neighbors. The most of any landlocked country in Africa. Called Northern Rhodesia until independence in 1964.
ZimbabweCapital: Harare. Landlocked, with four neighbors. Independent as Zimbabwe since 18 April 1980. The colony was called Southern Rhodesia.
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 East Africa numbers the 18 countries the United Nations files under Eastern Africa, from Eritrea to Zimbabwe, with Madagascar and three island countries. 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 18 countries, or Named for their names, then press Print this map. Print the answer key gives the names on a sheet of its own.
A blank map of Eastern Africa with six rings
Burundi, Rwanda, Djibouti, the Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles are too small to write inside, so each has a ring joined by a line. Rwanda and Burundi sit one above the other west of Tanzania. The three island countries lie in the Indian Ocean around Madagascar.
A class list of East Africa is often shorter than 18. Print Numbered and tell students which numbers to skip.
Questions and answers
Which countries does this map number?
The 18 member states in the United Nations list of Eastern Africa: Burundi, the Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Is this the East African Community?
No. The East African Community is a bloc of eight countries: Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Seven are numbered here; the Democratic Republic of the Congo is not.
Why is Somaliland not numbered?
Some borders on this map are disputed. The map follows Natural Earth, a public-domain map source, and does not take a side. It numbers member states of the United Nations, so Somaliland is drawn as a shape of its own with no number.