Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries distributed over an area of approximately 5 million square km: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.