Four African sites join the UNESCO World Heritage List, three of them national firsts

Four African sites were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List at the World Heritage Committee's 48th session in Busan, South Korea, in July 2026. For three countries, it was their first-ever World Heritage inscription.

The new sites

• Medinas of the Historic Sultanates of the Comoros (Comoros, first site): six historic towns that were capitals of the Comorian sultanates, shaped by centuries of Indian Ocean trade and a blend of African, Arab and Islamic influences.
• Roças of São Tomé and Príncipe (São Tomé and Príncipe, first site): six former plantation estates that show the colonial coffee and cocoa economy of the late 19th to mid-20th centuries, and the forced migration and labour on which it was built.
• Boma-Badingilo Migratory Landscape (South Sudan, first site): home to one of the world's largest land mammal migrations, with millions of antelope moving across its plains.
• Village of Sidi Bou Saïd (Tunisia): the white-and-blue clifftop village overlooking the Mediterranean, linked to a 12th–13th century Sufi saint and famous with artists.

Why it matters

World Heritage status brings international recognition, can boost tourism and helps secure support for conservation. For Comoros, São Tomé and Príncipe and South Sudan, the inscriptions put their history and nature on the global map, and the São Tomé listing also recognises a painful chapter of colonial history.