Africa is the second largest continent after Asia. Africa covers 11.6 million square miles of land, representing 20.2% of the planet’s land surface.
Africa is composed of 53 countries. Forty-seven are in the continent itself, including the disputed territory of Western Sahara. The remaining 6 are the island nations of Mauritius, Madagascar, the Comoros, Seychelles, Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Príncipe.
Currently over 955 million people live in the continent, comprising 14.3% of the world’s population. Africa is home to the Nile River, the longest river in the world and the Sahara Desert, the largest desert in the world.
Africa is rich in minerals and mineral fuels such as copper, gold, diamonds, titanium, nickel, zinc, coal and uranium.
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