Arabic “Islands of the Moon” sit in the Mozambique Channel
The Union of the Comoros gathers three islands at the Mozambique Channel’s north end, capital Moroni, with Islam as predominant and official faith. At 1,659 square kilometres it is Africa’s third-smallest state by area, yet among the densest, with a 2026 population estimate near 944,000.
The state takes in Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli plus many smaller islets, all part of the volcanic Comoro chain. Mayotte, the fourth main island, voted in 1974 to stay French and became an overseas department and region in 2011 after a lopsided referendum. France has repeatedly vetoed Security Council resolutions that would have backed Comorian sovereignty there. Independence from France came on 6 July 1975, and the official languages are Comorian, French and Arabic.
It is the only Arab League member lying wholly south of the equator, and it also belongs to the African Union, the Francophonie, the Indian Ocean Commission and the Islamic cooperation body. Politics have been turbulent: more than 20 coups or attempts, with several heads of state killed. Between 2009 and 2014 around 19 percent of residents lived on less than US$1.90 a day, though in 2023 inequality was lower than among regional peers.
The first known settlers were Austronesians sailing from island South-East Asia, present no later than the eighth century, the age of the oldest archaeological site, found on Mayotte; some scholars suggest arrival as early as the first century. Bantu speakers were there from the start, and later arrivals came from East Africa, Arabia, the Persian Gulf, the Malay world and Madagascar. From 1500 the Sultanate of Anjouan was dominant, with rival sultans dividing Grande Comore, until France absorbed the islands in the nineteenth century.
The name comes from Arabic Jazr al-Qumr. In 1870 the colonial judge Alfred Gevrey suggested Qumr first meant a wider southern zone where Arab sailors saw the bright Magellanic Clouds. Local legend says a jinni dropped a jewel that became the fiery Karthala volcano, which built Grande Comore, and that King Solomon visited with Queen Bilqis.
Source: Comoros
