Comoros Tyre Rules 2026: Island Roads, 1.6 mm Tread

Two facts settle most of what there is to say about tyres in the Comoros. First, there is no winter tyre rule and no stud regulation — the archipelago sits in the tropics and has no cold season. Second, there is no land border anywhere in the country: Grande Comore, Anjouan and Moheli are separate islands, linked by ferry, so no drive here ends at a frontier.

That leaves tread depth, and the figure used on this page is 1.6 mm in the main grooves, the benchmark from Council Directive 89/459/EEC.

Tyre Law Summary for the Comoros

The roads you will actually drive

The network is short and mostly coastal. On Grande Comore a single ring road runs around the island beneath Mount Karthala; Anjouan’s roads climb steeply and switchback; Moheli’s are fewer and rougher. Common characteristics:

• Narrow, with no shoulder. Passing a truck often means putting a wheel onto broken edge material. That is where sidewalls get cut.
• Steep gradients. Anjouan in particular demands sustained climbing and descending, which loads tyres and brakes together.
• Pedestrians and livestock share the carriageway in villages, so the effective speed is low regardless of the posted limit.

Wet season, cyclone season

From roughly November to April the islands are in the southwest Indian Ocean cyclone season. Rain is heavy rather than persistent, and it produces three specific problems:

1. Sheet water across the coast road, often carrying grit from the slope above.
2. Slick volcanic rock. Wet basalt has noticeably less grip than wet limestone or asphalt, and much of the exposed surface here is basalt.
3. Landslip debris on inland sections after a heavy night, including stone large enough to damage a sidewall at low speed.

Tread depth is the only tyre variable that helps with any of this. Below about 3 mm the grooves cannot clear water fast enough for a steep wet descent.

Volcanic ground

Karthala is an active volcano and the ground around it reflects that: sharp basalt gravel, ash and loose scoria on the tracks that climb from the ring road. Stone lodges in the tread and works its way in, and scoria edges cut sidewalls readily.

Pick embedded stone out after every inland trip, and check both sidewalls — the inner face gets missed and it is where slow cuts go unnoticed.

No border, but a ferry

There is nothing to compare across a frontier here, so the useful comparison is regional. The nearest road networks are on Madagascar, Mozambique and Tanzania, and none of the three operates a winter tyre season either. Taking a vehicle to any of them means a shipping arrangement, not a border crossing.

Speed limits, licence rules and required equipment are covered in the Driving in the Comoros guide.