Eastern Africa

  Eastern Africa (UN subregion)

  East African Community

  Central African Federation (defunct)

  Geographic East Africa, including the UN subregion and East African Community

Eastern Africa (UN subregion)

Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 20 territories constitute Eastern Africa:^[1]

• Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi – these are typically referred to as East Africa, and are members of the East African Community (EAC). Burundi and Rwanda are sometimes considered part of Central Africa, and Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda are sometimes considered part of the African Great Lakes region as well.
• Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles – small island nations in the Indian Ocean.
• Réunion and Mayotte – French overseas territories also in the Indian Ocean.
• South Sudan – newly independent from Sudan.

In addition:

• Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia – collectively known as the Horn of Africa,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} are sometimes considered to be part of Eastern Africa.
• Mozambique and Madagascar – often considered part of Southern Africa. Madagascar has close cultural ties to Southeast Asia and the islands of the Indian Ocean.
• Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe – often included in Southern Africa, and formerly of the Central African Federation.
• Egypt and Sudan are also in the northeastern portion of the continent,^[7] but are usually included in Northern Africa.^[8]

Due to the use of the names British East Africa Protectorate and German East Africa during the European colonial period, the term East Africa is often (especially in the English language) used to specifically refer to the area now comprising the three countries of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.^{[9][10][11][12]} However, this has never been the convention in many other languages, where the term generally had a wider, strictly geographic context and therefore typically included Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan.^{[13][14][15][16][17][18][19]}

See also

• African Great Lakes
• Ajuuraan State
• Aksumite Empire
• Arab slave trade
• British East Africa
• Central Africa
• Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa
• East African Campaign (World War I)
• East African Campaign (World War II)
• East African Community
• German East Africa
• Horn of Africa
• Italian East Africa
• Land of Punt
• North Africa
• Northeast Africa
• Southern Africa
• West Africa

Wikimedia Commons has media related to East Africa.

References

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