The Central African Republic (CAR) (French: République centrafricaine, pronounced: [ʁepyblik sɑ̃tʁafʁikɛn], or Centrafrique[sɑ̃tʀafʀik]; SangoKödörösêsetî Bêafrîka), is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is mostly a plateau or high, flat piece of land about 941 metres above the sea. The CAR covers a land area of about 240,000 square miles (620,000 km2), and has an estimated population of about 4.4 million as of 2008. Bangui is the capital city.

There are thick forests in the south, and these are home to rare gorillas. This part of Africa also has Pygmies.

Other important towns are Bouar, Zinga, and Ouadda. Its southern border is the Ubangi River. There are 3.8 million people in the C.A.R. Most of them belong to the Banda and Baya tribes. The main language is French but some people speak the national language of Sango.

The people mostly grow their own food, but sometimes droughts (long spells without any rain) make this difficult. The C.A.R. also has diamond and uranium mines. It sells these, as well as cotton, coffee and timber to other countries to make money.

The Currency (type of money they use) is the CFA Franc. 1 US Dollar is worth 424.05 CFA Francs.

The country was ruled by France until 1960 when it became independent.

Much of the Central African Republic is flat, or rolling plateau savanna. It is typically about 500 metres (1,640 ft) above sea level. Most of the northern half is in the World Wildlife Fund's East Sudanian savanna ecoregion. In the northeast are the Fertit Hills. There are scattered hills in the southwest part of the country. To the northwest is the Yade Massif, a granite plateau with an altitude of 1,143 feet (348 m).

At 622,941 square kilometres (240,519 sq mi), the Central African Republic is the world's 42nd-largest country. It is about the size of the Ukraine, and is somewhat smaller than the US state of Texas.

Forest covers up to 8% of the land. The densest parts are in the south. The forest is highly diverse. It includes commercially important species of Ayous, Sapelli and Sipo.[5] The deforestation rate is 0.4% per year, and lumber poaching is commonplace.[6]

The Central African Republic is divided into 14 administrative prefectures. There are also 2 economic prefectures and one autonomouscommune. The prefectures are further divided into 71 sub-prefectures.