Niger or Nigeria? Country names people mix up

Some country names are so close that people swap them all the time, even in the news. Here are the pairs that cause the most confusion, with a simple way to separate each one.

Both take their name from the Niger River. Niger is the larger, landlocked country to the north, much of it in the Sahara. Nigeria is to the south, on the Atlantic coast, and has by far the bigger population. Their flags are different too: Niger has orange, white and green stripes with an orange circle; Nigeria is green, white and green vertical bands.

The names only look alike. Austria is a small, landlocked country in Central Europe, with Vienna as its capital and a red-white-red flag. Australia is a continent-sized country in the Southern Hemisphere, with Canberra as its capital and a blue flag full of stars.

Both are Central European countries with white, blue and red flags and a coat of arms. Slovakia is further north and east, bordering Poland and Hungary; its capital is Bratislava. Slovenia is further south and west, bordering Italy and Austria, with a short coast on the Adriatic; its capital is Ljubljana. On the flags, Slovakia's coat of arms shows a double cross, Slovenia's shows a mountain and three stars.

• Guinea: West Africa, capital Conakry.
• Guinea-Bissau: Guinea's smaller neighbour, capital Bissau.
• Equatorial Guinea: Central Africa, with a mainland part and the island of Bioko, capital Malabo.
• Papua New Guinea: Oceania, the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, capital Port Moresby.

The Congo River separates two countries. The Republic of the Congo, capital Brazzaville, is the smaller one to the west. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, capital Kinshasa, is the giant to the east and south. Brazzaville and Kinshasa face each other across the river.

• Sudan and South Sudan: South Sudan became independent from Sudan in 2011. Their capitals are Khartoum and Juba.
• Iran and Iraq: neighbours in the Middle East. Iran's capital is Tehran; Iraq's is Baghdad.
• Gambia and Zambia: Gambia is a small West African country; Zambia is landlocked in southern Africa.
• Dominica and the Dominican Republic: Dominica is a small island in the eastern Caribbean; the Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.
• Mali and Malawi, Mauritania and Mauritius, Latvia and Lithuania, Sweden and Switzerland, Togo and Tonga: each pair sounds alike but sits in a different part of the world.

On Expert difficulty, AtlasGenie uses these pairs as deliberate wrong answers, so learning them pays off quickly.