[en] Quantifying the biomass and carbon stocks contained in tropical forests has become an international priority for the implementation of the REDD+ mechanism. Forest biomass is estimated through three successive levels: the tree, the stand and the region level. This study reviews the state of the art on the estimation of biomass and carbon stocks contained in tropical African forests. This review highlights that only few allometric equations, equations used for estimating biomass of the tree from non-destructive measurements (diameter, height), have been established for tropical African forests. At the stand level, this synthesis highlights the spatial and temporal variations in biomass between forests types in Central and Eastern Africa. While biomass recovery after disturbance (logging for instance) is rather quick, there is still a lot of uncertainity on the spatial variation in biomass, and there is no consensus on a regional biomass map. The quality of biomass mapping in tropical Africa stronly depends on the various sensors used (optical, RADAR or LIDAR), the allometric equation used to convert forest inventory data and sampling design. Based on the lack of precision of available allometric equations and forest inventory data a large spatial scale, many uncertainties persist on estimating the biomass and carbon stocks contained in the African tropical forests. It is important to develop reference sites (both allometry and forest inventory) to provide accurate biomass estimates for an effective implementation of the REDD+.