Community of Sahel-Saharan States

The Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD) aims to create a free trade area.

تجمع دول الساحل والصحراء Communauté des États Sahélo-Sahariens Community of Sahel-Saharan States
Headquarters	Tripoli, Libya
Official languages	Arabic English French Portuguese
Type	Trade bloc
29 member states
Leaders
• Secretary General	Mohamed Al-Madani Al-Azhari
Establishment
• Agreement signed	4 February 1998
Website http://www.uneca.org/cen-sad/fr/index.htm

CEN-SAD was started in February 1998 by six countries. Since then its membership has grown to 29. One of its main goals is to get economic unity through the free movement of people and goods. This is to make the member states a free trade area.

List of members

Founding members:

• Burkina Faso
• Chad
• Libya
• Mali
• Niger
• Sudan

Countries that joined later:

• Central African Republic (1999)
• Eritrea (1999)
• Djibouti (2000)
• Gambia (2000)
• Senegal (2000)
• Egypt (2001)
• Morocco (2001)
• Nigeria (2001)
• Somalia (2001)
• Tunisia (2001)
• Benin (2002)
• Togo (2002)
• Ivory Coast (2004)
• Guinea-Bissau (2004)
• Liberia (2004)
• Gambia (2005)
• Sierra Leone (2005)
• Comoros (2007)
• Guinea (2007)
• Kenya (2008)
• Mauritania (2008)
• São Tomé and Príncipe (2008)
• Cape Verde (2009)