60 Fun Facts About Comoros

What is the capital and largest city of the Comoros?

Moroni, on the west coast of the largest island, is both the seat of government and the biggest city; its harbour and old Friday mosque face the sea.

In which year did the Comoros proclaim independence from France?

The Comorian parliament declared independence unilaterally on 6 July 1975; France recognised the new state, minus one island, on 31 December that year.

Alongside Comorian and French, which language is official in the Comoros?

Arabic is the third official language alongside Comorian and French; it is the language of Quranic schooling, and Comorian itself has traditionally been written in Arabic script.

The Comoros is the only member of which organisation to lie entirely in the Southern Hemisphere?

The Comoros joined the Arab League in 1993 and is its only member lying wholly in the Southern Hemisphere; it also belongs to the African Union and the Indian Ocean Commission.

The Comoros is Africa's third-smallest country by area, behind São Tomé and Príncipe and which other?

Seychelles, at about 460 square kilometres, is Africa's smallest country; São Tomé and Príncipe is next, and the Comoros, at under 2,000 square kilometres, is third.

The name 'Comoros' comes from Jazr al-Qumr, a phrase meaning what?

'Islands of the Moon' is the usual translation: qamar means moon in the language of the Arab sailors who named the archipelago, and a crescent moon appears on the national flag.

The Comoros sits at the northern end of which body of water?

The Mozambique Channel separates Madagascar from mainland Africa; the Comoros lie at its northern end, between northern Mozambique and the northern tip of Madagascar, with no land borders.

Which island of the Comoro archipelago voted against independence and is still administered by France?

Mayotte voted to remain French in the 1974 referendum and became a full French overseas department in 2011; the Comoros has claimed the island ever since independence.

Which active shield volcano is the highest point of the Comoros?

Mount Karthala is one of the world's most active volcanoes, erupting repeatedly since the 19th century, most recently in a series of eruptions between 2005 and 2007.

How tall is the highest point of the Comoros?

The volcano's summit stands at 2,361 m above sea level, and its 3 km by 4 km caldera has been reshaped by frequent eruptions.

Since independence, roughly how many coups or attempted coups has the Comoros experienced?

More than 20 coups or attempted coups have shaken the Comoros since independence, many involving foreign mercenaries, and one president was assassinated in office in 1989.

The Comoros is the world's largest producer of which perfume-industry plant?

Ylang-ylang oil is distilled from the flowers of Cananga odorata, a tree French planters introduced to the islands; the Comoros is the world's leading producer of the essence.

Which currency does the Comoros use?

The Comorian franc is the national currency, issued by the Banque Centrale des Comores and pegged to the euro at a fixed rate guaranteed by the French treasury.

Which 'living fossil' fish, thought extinct for 66 million years, was found off the Comoros in December 1952?

Coelacanth specimens had first turned up in 1938 off South Africa; the 1952 catch off the Comoros revealed a living population, and dozens more were recorded there over the following decades.

Which UTC offset does the Comoros keep all year?

The Comoros keeps East Africa Time, UTC+3, the same offset as Madagascar, Tanzania and Kenya.

At the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, the Comoros pulled off a shock 3-2 group win over which nation?

Ghana, one of Africa's most successful football nations, lost 3-2 to the Comoros in January 2022 after Ahmed Mogni scored twice, and went out in the group stage.

Who proclaimed Comorian independence and became the country's first president?

Ahmed Abdallah lasted less than a month before a coup ousted him; he returned to power in 1978 and ruled until his assassination in 1989.

Which French mercenary, the 'Viceroy of the Comoros', joined four coup attempts there?

Bob Denard ran the presidential guard with South African money and was finally forced to surrender to French paratroopers in 1995 after his fourth coup on the islands.

Which Comorian president, a socialist revolutionary, renounced Islam and became an atheist?

Ali Soilih, in power from 1976, was toppled by a mercenary-led coup on 13 May 1978 and shot dead a few weeks later.

The constitution approved by referendum in December 2001 renamed the country what?

Union of the Comoros replaced the Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoros; each island became largely autonomous with its own president, and the Union presidency rotated between the islands.

How many horizontal stripes does the Comorian flag have?

Four horizontal stripes — yellow, white, red and blue — stand for the four islands of the archipelago, one of them the French-administered island the Comoros claims.

What does the title of the national anthem, Udzima wa ya Masiwa, mean?

The Union of the Great Islands is the meaning of Udzima wa ya Masiwa, the Comorian-language song adopted as the national anthem in 1978.

Which is the largest island in the Comoros?

Grande Comore, known locally as Ngazidja, covers about 1,024 square kilometres; as the youngest island geologically it has rocky soil and few good harbours.

By what name was the island of Anjouan known to English speakers until the early twentieth century?

Johanna was the English sailors' name for the island, a watering stop for East India Company ships bound for India and for American whalers before the Suez Canal opened in 1869.

Which town is the capital of the smallest of the three main islands?

Fomboni is the chief town of the smallest island, which lies between the other two main islands and is home to the country's first national park, a marine reserve created in 2001.

Comorian, the islands' main language, is most closely related to which language?

Swahili and Comorian both belong to the Sabaki group of Bantu languages; Comorian is spoken in a distinct dialect on each island.

Twarab, the Comoros' most influential music genre, was imported from where in the early 1900s?

Zanzibar, the East African island where taarab flourished under its sultans, passed the style to the Comoros, where twarab became the music of grand-marriage festivities.

Livingstone's fruit bat, the largest and rarest bat in the Comoros, has a wingspan of up to how much?

Its wingspan reaches 1.4 m, with a weight of up to 800 grams; it survives on only two of the islands and, unlike most bats, soars on daytime thermals.

How old was Bahia Bakari, the sole survivor of the 2009 Yemenia Flight 626 crash off the Comoros?

Bahia Bakari was 12 when she was found clinging to wreckage hours after the crash; the other 152 people aboard died in the country's deadliest aviation disaster.

Yemenia Flight 626, which crashed on approach to the Comoros in 2009, had departed from which city?

The Airbus A310 had left Sanaa, Yemen's capital, bound for the Comorian capital; investigators found it stalled at low altitude during a night approach after inappropriate crew actions.

President Sambi, elected in 2006, earned the nickname 'Ayatollah' for studying Islam in which country?

Sambi studied Islamic theology in Iran, which earned him the 'Ayatollah' nickname; his 2006 election was the first peaceful democratic transfer of power in Comorian history.

Where was Anjouan rebel leader Mohammed Bacar eventually granted asylum after 2008?

Benin took him in after France rejected his asylum claim; he had fled the island by speedboat to French-run territory when African Union and Comorian forces landed in March 2008.

How many national parks had the Comoros established by 2022?

Six national parks existed by 2022: three marine parks protecting reefs, two around the highest peaks, and the original park on the smallest island, which covers both land and sea.

How many people were evacuated during the April 2005 eruption of the Karthala volcano?

The eruption destroyed the crater lake that had filled the caldera since 1991.

In 933, Omani sailors referred to the Comoros by what name?

The Perfume Islands was the name Omani sailors used; the islands later became a hub of the East African coastal trade alongside Kilwa, Sofala and Mombasa.

Which internet top-level domain belongs to the Comoros?

.km is the Comoros' internet country code, matching its two-letter ISO code KM; .cm belongs to Cameroon and .co to Colombia.

Which single crop was the Comoros' largest export by value in the early 2020s?

Cloves were the Comoros' biggest export by value through the early 2020s, well ahead of vanilla and perfume essences; agriculture employed more than half the workforce.

What caused Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 to ditch off the Comoros in 1996?

A hijacking by three men demanding to be flown to Australia ended when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 ran out of fuel and ditched off the Comoros in November 1996, killing 125.

Sunni Islam is followed by roughly what share of the Comorian population?

About 99% of Comorians are Sunni Muslims, mostly of the Shafi'i school, and the constitution makes Sunni Islam the state religion.

Al-Watwan, one of the country's two daily newspapers, is owned by whom?

The government owns Al-Watwan, the state newspaper; the privately owned La Gazette des Comores is the other daily, and both are published in the capital.

The Comorian dish mshakiki is what?

Marinated skewered beef, grilled over charcoal, is sold by street vendors across the islands; it closely resembles the mishkaki of the Kenyan and Tanzanian coast.

What is the main ingredient of mataba, a Comorian staple dish?

Cassava leaves, pounded and simmered in coconut milk, often with fish, make mataba, a staple served across the islands.

Msindzano, the paste many Comorian women apply to their faces, is made from ground coral and what?

Sandalwood, ground with coral on a stone, gives msindzano its pale yellow colour; women wear the paste to protect and beautify their skin.

The Badjanani Mosque in the Comorian capital was built in which year?

The Badjanani Mosque dates from 1427, making it one of the oldest buildings in the country, built during the heyday of the East African coastal trading cities.

The Comoros became which numbered member state of the United Nations?

The Comoros was admitted as the 143rd member state a few months after independence; the UN defined the new state as the whole archipelago, even though the fourth island had chosen to remain French.

Which French city is home to the largest Comorian community outside the islands?

Marseille is home to the largest Comorian community abroad, often called the biggest Comorian city after the capital, and the money its emigrants send home is a major part of the islands' economy.

Ikililou Dhoinine, inaugurated in 2011, was the first Comorian president from which island?

Mohéli, the smallest island, finally got its turn under the rotating presidency set up by the 2001 reconciliation accords; Dhoinine served one term until 2016.

In which year did the Comoros join the World Trade Organization?

The Comoros joined the World Trade Organization on 21 August 2024, becoming its 165th member.

The kashkazi, which runs from November to April, is which part of the Comorian year?

The rainy period is the kashkazi, the hot and humid north-monsoon season; the cooler, drier kusi or south monsoon takes over from May to October.

Which lemur, introduced from Madagascar, lives wild on two of the Comoro islands?

Mongoose lemur troops live wild on two of the islands, almost certainly brought over from Madagascar by people centuries ago; the species is otherwise native only to north-western Madagascar.

The first attested inhabitants of the Comoros are thought to have arrived by boat from where?

Southeast Asia is thought to be where the Austronesian settlers sailed from, arriving no later than the eighth century; Bantu speakers from East Africa were present from the very start of settlement.

Legend says the islanders' emissary Mtswa-Mwindza reached which city in 632, just after Muhammad died?

Mecca was his destination, but Muhammad had died before he arrived; he is said to have returned to build a mosque at Ntsaweni and to have led the islanders' gradual conversion.

After the 1995 mercenary coup, France flew President Djohar to which island for 'treatment'?

Réunion, the French island to the east, was where Djohar was kept until January 1996, after French troops had ended the coup; he returned only to a largely ceremonial role.

The country's largest patch of vanishing rainforest is found where?

On the slopes of its volcano, the largest island keeps the biggest remaining stretch of Comorian rainforest, protected by a national park yet threatened by logging and farming.

Which army chief of staff seized power in a bloodless coup in April 1999?

Azali Assoumani, then army chief of staff, took power without bloodshed on 30 April 1999; he returned to the presidency in 2016 and won a 2018 referendum letting a president serve two consecutive terms.

In which year did the Comoros assume the rotating presidency of the African Union?

In 2023 the Comorian president took over the African Union chair for a one-year term, and the country was invited as a guest to that year's G7 summit in Hiroshima.

Mutsamudu is the capital of which Comorian island?

Anjouan, the easternmost of the three main islands, has Mutsamudu as its chief town and a distinctive triangular shape formed by three mountain chains radiating from a central peak.

Which peak is the central summit of the country's triangular island?

Mount Ntingui is the highest point of the island; the three mountain chains radiating from it, Shisiwani, Nioumakele and Jimilime, give the island its triangular shape.

In 2021 the Comoros signed and ratified a treaty prohibiting what?

Nuclear weapons are banned under the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which the Comoros signed and ratified on the same day in February 2021.

France acquired its first Comoro island in 1841 from a usurper sultan of which people?

Sakalava king Andriantsoly, who had fled Madagascar and seized the island, ceded it to France in 1841; the French then tried to turn it into a sugar-plantation colony.