Eastern African Countries: Full List, Capitals, and Map

Eastern Africa is the easternmost subregion of the African continent.

As with other African regions, its exact boundaries vary depending on whether the definition is based on political groupings, statistical systems, or physical geography.

For clarity and consistency, we follow the United Nations (UN) geoscheme, which classifies Eastern Africa as consisting of 18 sovereign countries and two overseas territories (Mayotte and Réunion) included for statistical purposes.

List of countries in East Africa

1. Burundi
2. Comoros
3. Djibouti
4. Eritrea
5. Ethiopia
6. Kenya
7. Madagascar
8. Malawi
9. Mauritius
10. Mozambique
11. Rwanda
12. Seychelles
13. Somalia
14. South Sudan
15. Tanzania
16. Uganda
17. Zambia
18. Zimbabwe

This UN-defined version is the most widely used system in international statistics, development reporting, and global data comparisons.

Eastern Africa countries table

The UN geoscheme recognizes the following sovereign states as part of the Eastern Africa subregion:

Countries in Africa Map

Eastern Africa includes the Horn of Africa and the Great Rift Valley system. It also contains Indian Ocean coastline, major inland lakes such as Lake Victoria, the second-largest freshwater lake in the world by area, and Lake Tanganyika, the world’s second-largest freshwater lake by volume.

The region contains active volcanic zones, long coastlines, desert areas, open savanna, and highland farming areas.

How Eastern Africa is defined

UN geoscheme (most common)

This is the definition used by:

• The United Nations
• The World Bank
• Most international statistical agencies

It includes the countries listed above and is the standard system used for population, land area, economic, health, and development data.

African Union

The African Union (AU) regional groupings are similar to the UN’s but may vary slightly in certain administrative uses.

The AU groups Eastern African states mainly for political coordination, peacekeeping operations, and economic integration.

Under the African Union’s regional classification, Eastern Africa consists of 14 member states. Unlike the UN system, the AU includes Sudan and excludes several countries that the UN places in Eastern Africa, including Burundi, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

East African Community

The East African Community (EAC) is a regional intergovernmental organization focused on economic and political integration. Its current member states include:

• Burundi
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Kenya
• Rwanda
• Somalia
• South Sudan
• Tanzania
• Uganda

The EAC is not a geographic definition of Eastern Africa, but a trade and cooperation bloc that overlaps only part of the wider UN-defined region.

Physical geography definition

In physical geography, Eastern Africa is often defined by:

• The Eastern, or Great Rift Valley system
• The Horn of Africa
• The East African Plateau
• The Indian Ocean coastal belt

Under this approach, emphasis is placed on landforms, tectonic activity, and ecosystems rather than national borders.

This version is commonly used in geology, climate science, and wildlife studies.

Historical and Cultural Background

Eastern Africa holds a central place in human history. Fossil discoveries across the region show that some of the earliest anatomically modern humans developed here nearly 200,000 years ago.

Fossil evidence from the Rift Valley running through Ethiopia played a major role in the study of human origins and later became an important route for human migrations out of Africa.

The region has also been shaped by:

• Ancient trading networks across the Indian Ocean
• Long-standing links with Arab, Persian, and South Asian traders
• The spread of Christianity and Islam
• European colonial rule and later independence movements

Modern Eastern African societies reflect layers of early African settlement, Indian Ocean trade, Islamic influence, and later colonial-era boundaries.

Global regions map

To help place Eastern Africa within the wider UN classification system, the global regions map below shows how all world subregions are organized.

The UN geoscheme assigns every UN member state to a defined geographic region, allowing consistent international comparisons. Antarctica is excluded because the framework applies only to UN member states.

Within Africa, the UN recognizes five subregions:

• Northern Africa
• Western Africa
• Middle Africa
• Eastern Africa
• Southern Africa

Across the entire world, the geoscheme identifies 22 geographical subregions in total.