Category:Africa

 Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most-populous continent. At about 30.2 million km² (11.7 million sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers six percent of the earth's total surface area and 20.4 percent of the total land area. With 1.1 billion people as of 2013, it accounts for about 15% of the world's human population. The continent is surrounded by the  Mediterranean Sea  to the north, both the Suez Canal  and the Red Sea  along the  Sinai Peninsula  to the northeast, the  Indian Ocean  to the southeast, and the  Atlantic Ocean  to the west. The continent includes  Madagascar  and various  archipelagoes. It has 54  fully recognized   sovereign states  (" countries "), nine  territories  and two  de facto independent  states with limited or no recognition. [4]

Africa's population is the youngest among all the continents; 50% of Africans are 19 years old or younger.[5]

Algeria is Africa's largest country by area, and Nigeria is the largest by population. Africa, particularly central Eastern Africa, is widely accepted as the place of origin of humans and the Hominidae clade (great apes), as evidenced by the discovery of the earliest hominids and their ancestors, as well as later ones that have been dated to around seven million years ago, including Sahelanthropus tchadensis, Australopithecus africanus, A. afarensis, Homo erectus, H. habilis andH. ergaster – with the earliest Homo sapiens (modern human) found in Ethiopia being dated to circa 200,000 years ago.

 Africa straddles the  equator  and encompasses numerous climate areas; it is the only continent to stretch from the northern  temperate  to southern temperate zones.