194 articles
Aba, Abia State
Aba, the Enyimba City, is the commercial and manufacturing hub of Abia State, Nigeria, on the Aba River between Port Harcourt and Umuahia. Known for Ariaria International Market, the Made in Aba footwear and garment clusters, and its 1913 railway link.
Abéché
Abéché, capital of Ouaddaï Region in eastern Chad, fourth largest city, former capital of the Wadai Sultanate from the 1850s, taken by France in 1909, now a trade and refugee-crisis hub.
Abeokuta
Abeokuta, capital of Ogun State in southwestern Nigeria, founded about 1830 by the Egba under Sodeke beneath Olumo Rock; name means 'under the rock'; grew from 399,000 (2000) to over 533,000 (2020) as a Lagos satellite city.
Abidjan
Abidjan, economic capital of Côte d'Ivoire on the Ebrié lagoon; 6.3 million people, 13 communes, 40% of GDP; major West African port handling over 40 million tonnes; noted for congestion, sanitation deficits, and rapid informal growth.
Abomey-Calavi
Abomey-Calavi, a commune in Atlantique Department, southern Benin, about 18 km north of Cotonou; Benin's second most populous urban center, 656,358 residents in 2013, nine arrondissements, and among West Africa's fastest-expanding secondary cities.
Abuja
Abuja, Nigeria's capital since 1991, a planned city in the Federal Capital Territory (8,000 sq km) created by Decree No. 6 of 1976 to replace Lagos, developed by the FCDA under the Aguda Panel recommendation.
Accra
Accra, capital and largest city of Ghana on the Gulf of Guinea; became Gold Coast capital in 1877. Known for Ga Mashie and Jamestown heritage, rapid growth, low-density sprawl, and recurrent flooding.
Agege
Agege, a local government area in north-west mainland Lagos, Nigeria; a former Awori railway market town, home of Agege bread, 7 wards, about 460,000 people (2006), and a Red Line rail station.
Akure
Akure, capital of Ondo State, Nigeria since 1976, a medium-sized Yoruba city in the southwest. Seat of the Deji, home of FUTA; built-up land grew from 14% (1991) to 38% (2020).
Anomabo
Anomabu, also spelled Anomabo and historically Annamaboe, is a Fante town in Ghana's Central Region that grew into a major Atlantic slave-trading port, with the British Fort William still standing on its shore.
Arlit
Arlit is a mining town in the Agadez Region of northern Niger, on the southern edge of the Sahara, built around one of Africa's principal uranium mining districts since 1969.
Asaba
Asaba is an Igbo town on the west bank of the Niger River, opposite Onitsha in Delta State, Nigeria, briefly capital of the Royal Niger Company in the mid-1880s.
Ashaiman
Ashaiman, a town and municipality in Greater Accra, Ghana, about 30 km from Accra and 4 km north of Tema; a fully urban dormitory and trading town of about 206,000 people (2021 census) governed by the Ashaiman Municipal Assembly since 2008.
Atani
Atani is a city on the eastern bank of the Niger River in Anambra State, Nigeria, headquarters of Ogbaru Local Government Area; population about 230,000, near Onitsha, with namesakes in Akwa Ibom, Abia, and Bangladesh.
Badagry
Badagry is a coastal town in Lagos State, southwestern Nigeria, about 57 kilometers from Lagos, once a major embarkation port of the historic Slave Coast.
Bafoussam
Bafoussam, capital of Cameroon's West Region and Mifi department, founded 1925 by French colonial administration; Bamiléké highland trade hub of about 373,000 people, a Communauté urbaine since 2008 with three arrondissements, mayor Roger Tafam.
Bafut
Bafut is a fondom (kingdom) of the Bafut people in the Northwest Region of Cameroon, about 22 km from Bamenda, known for resisting German rule and its palace.
Bamako
Bamako, capital and largest city of Mali on the Niger River; founded around 1640, French colonial capital from 1908, now a fast-growing city facing floods, water shortages, and a 2025-2026 JNIM blockade.
Bamenda
Bamenda, capital of Cameroon's North West Region in Mezam Division, a highland commercial hub of about 349,000 people (2026), epicenter of the Anglophone separatist conflict since 2016 and site of Pope Leo XIV's 2026 peace meeting.
Bangui
Bangui is the capital and largest city of the Central African Republic, on the Ubangi River. Founded by the French in June 1889, it had a projected 869,600 residents in 2025 and eight arrondissements.
Banjul
Banjul, formerly Bathurst until renaming, is the capital of The Gambia on an island at the Gambia River's mouth; founded by Britain in 1816, its port handles about 90% of national trade, and the city lies at sea level facing severe sea-level-rise risk.
Bata, Litoral
Bata, in Litoral Province on mainland Río Muni, is the largest city and economic capital of Equatorial Guinea. Founded in 1905 as a Spanish timber and coffee port, it had roughly 400,000 residents by the mid-2020s.
Bauchi (city)
Bauchi is a city in northeastern Nigeria and the capital of Bauchi State, founded around 1809 on the northern edge of the Jos Plateau and named for a hunter, Baushe.
Bégoua
Bégoua, also spelled Begoua, is a commune and city about 10 km north of Bangui in the Central African Republic, Ombella-M'Poko Prefecture; 264,067 residents at the 2021 RGPH-4 census, PK12 transport terminus, part of Grand Bangui Region 7.
Benguela
Benguela: coastal city and provincial capital in western Angola, founded by the Portuguese in 1617, a major slave-trade port from the 1720s, and namesake of the Benguela Railway (CFB), the Lobito-Luau line at the heart of the Lobito Corridor.
Benin City
Benin City is the capital of Edo State in southern Nigeria and the historic seat of the precolonial Kingdom of Benin, whose bronzes were looted by Britain in 1897.
Bida
Bida is a city in Niger State, north-central Nigeria, seat of the Bida Emirate and the Etsu Nupe (Yahaya Abubakar since 2003). Founded mid-19th century as Nupe capital, known for brass, glass, and dyeing crafts.
Bissau
Bissau is the capital and largest city of Guinea-Bissau, a port on the Geba estuary. Founded 1692, colonial capital from 1942, about 502,711 people in the 2026 census, roughly a quarter of the national population.
Bo, Southern Province
Bo is the second-largest city of Sierra Leone and the administrative seat of Southern Province, population 233,684 at 7.96 N, 11.74 W; known for Bo Government Hospital, Bo District onchocerciasis burden, and the isolated Bo-Kenema power grid.
Bobo-Dioulasso
Bobo-Dioulasso, known locally as the City of Sya, is the second largest city of Burkina Faso and its main commercial center, in the west of the country.