The Comoros, officially the Union of the Comoros, is an independent country made up of three islands in Southeastern Africa, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city is Moroni. The religion of the majority of the population, and the official state religion, is Sunni Islam. Comoros proclaimed its independence from France on 6 July 1975. A member of the Arab League, it is the only country in the Arab world which is entirely in the Southern Hemisphere. It is a member state of the African Union, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and the Indian Ocean Commission. The country has three official languages: Shikomori, French and Arabic.
Mayotte, officially the Department of Mayotte, is an overseas department and region and single territorial collectivity of France. It is located in the northern part of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Southeastern Africa, between Northwestern Madagascar and Northeastern Mozambique. Mayotte consists of a main island, Grande-Terre, a smaller island, Petite-Terre, as well as several islets around these two. Mayotte is the most prosperous territory in the Mozambique Channel, making it a major destination for immigration.
Stand Ye Guamanians, officially known as the Guam Hymn, is the regional anthem of Guam. The original English lyrics and music were written and composed in 1919 by Ramon Manilisay Sablan. The lyrics were slightly modified by the U.S. government prior to official adoption in 1952. In 1974, Lagrimas Untalan translated the English lyrics into CHamoru, which were made official in 1989. The CHamoru version is more widely used today.
The national flag of the Union of the Comoros was designed in 2001 and officially adopted on 23 December 2001. It continues to display the crescent and four stars, which is a motif that has been in use in slightly various forms since 1975 during the independence movement. In its constitution, the government of the Comoros refers to the insignia as l'emblème national, or the "national emblem", though it is understood to actually represent a flag.
Comorian is the name given to a group of four Bantu languages spoken in the Comoro Islands, an archipelago in the southwestern Indian Ocean between Mozambique and Madagascar. It is named as one of the official languages of the Union of the Comoros in the Comorian constitution. Shimaore, one of the languages, is spoken on the disputed island of Mayotte, a French department claimed by Comoros.
The Comoro Islands or Comoros form an archipelago of volcanic islands situated off the southeastern coast of Africa, to the east of Mozambique and northwest of Madagascar. The islands are politically divided between the Union of the Comoros, a sovereign country, and Mayotte, an Overseas Department of France.
Sayyid Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi is a Comorian Islamic leader and politician, and former President of Comoros. He is popularly known as 'Ayatollah'. After easily winning the 14 May 2006 presidential election with 58.02% of the national vote, Sambi was inaugurated as President of the Union of the Comoros on 26 May 2006. It was the first peaceful transfer of power in the history of the Comoros.
The postage stamps and postal history of the Comoro Islands is an overview of the postage stamps and postal history of the Comoro Islands, an Indian Ocean archipelago located on the south-east side of Africa.
The predominant religion in the Comoros is Islam, with a small Christian minority. Although the constitution, as revised in 2018, removed the reference to a state religion in the 2009 constitution, stating simply that Sunni Islam is the source of national identity, a 2008 law promulgated in January 2013 outlawed the practice of other forms of Islam in the country. Propagation of non-Islamic religions is prohibited.
The National Civil Aviation and Meteorological Agency of the Union of the Comoros is the civil aviation authority of the Comoros. It is also in charge of investigating aviation accidents and incidents. Its head office is in Moroni.
The official languages of the Comoros are Comorian, French and Arabic, as recognized under its 2001 constitution. Although each language holds equal recognition under the constitution, language use varies across Comorian society. Unofficial minority languages such as Malagasy and Swahili are also present on the island with limited usage. According to Harriet Joseph Ottenheimer, a professor of anthropology at Kansas State university, the linguistic diversity of the Comoros is the result of its rich history as part of the Indian maritime trade routes and its periods of Malagasy and French colonial rule.
Int'Air Îles is a regional airline based at Ouani Airport, Anjouan in the Comoros. It was founded in 2007 as Inter Îles Air and rebranded to its current name in March 2015. Using a fleet of six turboprop aircraft, the airline serves all three islands of the Comoros, the French territory of Mayotte, Tanzania, and Madagascar.
Zéna M'Déré was a Mayotte woman best known as the leader of the Chatouilleuses, a movement of women who fought to maintain Mayotte's status as a French overseas department rather than joining Comoros in declaring independence, notably through the use of tickle torture on political leaders.
Hadjira Oumouri is a Comorian politician and midwife. She served from 2015 to 2020 in the Assembly of the Union of the Comoros, becoming the second woman elected to the body in the country's history.
Comorian nationality law is regulated by the Constitution of the Comoros, as amended; the Comorian Nationality Code, and its revisions; and various international agreements to which the country is a signatory. These laws determine who is, or is eligible to be, a national of the Comoros. The legal means to acquire nationality, formal legal membership in a nation, differ from the domestic relationship of rights and obligations between a national and the nation, known as citizenship. Comorian nationality is typically obtained under the principle of jus soli, i.e. by birth in the Comoros, or jus sanguinis, born abroad to parents with Comorian nationality. It can be granted to persons with an affiliation to the country, or to a permanent resident who has lived in the country for a given period of time through naturalization. The country no longer allows for nationality to be acquired through investment.
Kanizat Ibrahim is a Comoran business manager and football administrator. She is the 5th vice president of Confederation of African Football (CAF), making her the first female vice-president and the president of the organizing committee for women's football of CAF.
Ibtoihi Hadhari is a Comorian professional football player who plays for Olympique de Marseille II.
Iyad Inomse M'Vourani Mohamed is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Championnat National club Le Mans on loan from Caen. Born in France, he plays for the Comoros national team.
"Ungwana" ("Liberty"), also known as "Comor Masiwa Mane", was the national anthem of Comoros from 1975 or 1976 to 1978, when a coup by Ahmed Abdallah and Bob Denard took place, and it was replaced by the current anthem, "Udzima wa ya Masiwa". It was written and composed by Abdérémane Chihabiddine, better known as Abou Chihabi, a musician with the Comorian folk band Folkomor Océan. It was adopted under the Ali Soilih administration following a competition won by Chihabi.
The Territory of the Comoros was a French overseas territory consisting of the four main Comoro Islands that existed from 1946 to 1975. It was part of the French Union under the Fourth Republic, then part of the French Community established by the Constitution of the Fifth Republic from 1958.
Comoros 