Portal:Democratic Republic of the Congo

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The Democratic Republic of the Congo Portal

Flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo	Coat of Arms of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (also abbreviated as DR Congo,DRC, the DROC, and RDC (in French)) is a country in Central Africa. By land area, the DRC is the second-largest country in Africa and the 11th-largest in the world. With a population of around 105 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most populous Francophone country in the world, and the fourth-largest in Africa. The national capital and largest city is Kinshasa, which is also the economic center. The country is bordered by the Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania (across Lake Tanganyika), Zambia, Angola, the Cabinda exclave of Angola, and the South Atlantic Ocean.

Centered on the Congo Basin, the territory of the DRC was first inhabited by Central African foragers around 90,000 years ago and was reached by the Bantu expansion about 3,000 years ago. In the west, the Kingdom of Kongo ruled around the mouth of the Congo River from the 14th to 19th centuries. In the northeast, center, and east, the kingdoms of Azande, Luba, and Lunda ruled from the 16th and 17th centuries to the 19th century. King Leopold II of Belgium formally acquired rights to the Congo territory from the colonial nations of Europe in 1885 and declared the land his private property, naming it the Congo Free State. From 1885 to 1908, his colonial military forced the local population to produce rubber and committed widespread atrocities. In 1908, Leopold ceded the territory, which thus became a Belgian colony.

Congo achieved independence from Belgium on 30 June 1960 and was immediately confronted by a series of secessionist movements, the assassination of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, and the seizure of power by Mobutu Sese Seko in a 1965 coup d'état. Mobutu renamed the country Zaire in 1971 and imposed a harsh personalist dictatorship until his overthrow in 1997 by the First Congo War. The country then had its name changed back and was confronted by the Second Congo War from 1998 to 2003, which resulted in the deaths of 5.4 million people. The war ended under President Joseph Kabila, who governed the country from 2001 to 2019, under whom human rights in the country remained poor and included frequent abuses such as forced disappearances, torture, arbitrary imprisonment and restrictions on civil liberties. Following the 2018 general election, in the country's first peaceful transition of power since independence, Kabila was succeeded as president by Félix Tshisekedi, who has served as president since. Since 2015, the Eastern DR Congo has been the site of an ongoing military conflict in Kivu.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is extremely rich in natural resources but has suffered from political instability, a lack of infrastructure, corruption, and centuries of both commercial and colonial extraction and exploitation, followed by more than 60 years of independence, with little widespread development. Besides the capital Kinshasa, the two next largest cities, Lubumbashi and Mbuji-Mayi, are both mining communities. The DRC's largest export is raw minerals, with China accepting over 50% of its exports in 2019. In 2021, DR Congo's level of human development was ranked 179th out of 191 countries by the Human Development Index and is classed as a least developed country by the UN. , following two decades of various civil wars and continued internal conflicts, around 600,000 Congolese refugees were still living in neighbouring countries. Two million children risk starvation, and the fighting has displaced 4.5 million people. The country is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, African Union, COMESA, Southern African Development Community, Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, and Economic Community of Central African States. (Full article...)

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Although the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has Africa's largest freshwater resources, it is suffering from an acute drinking water supply crisis. The DRC has one of the lowest rates of access to clean drinking water in Sub-Saharan Africa and the world. Only 46 percent of the population had access to an improved drinking water source in 2012. Furthermore, the sanitation coverage was estimated at only 31 percent in 2012. Up to date and accurate information on water supply and sanitation services in the DRC is scarce. As a result of inadequate water supply and sanitation services, many inhabitants are suffering from waterborne diseases, including diarrhoea, typhoid, and cholera.

The current water crisis is a result of the deteriorated state of the water infrastructure due to underinvestment in the water sector and conflict-related destruction as well as the rapid growth of the population, which was estimated at 4 percent in urban areas and 2.5 percent in rural areas by the World Bank in 2009. Overall, the DRC's water supply and sanitation sector is characterized by several overlapping and conflicting institutional jurisdictions. Therefore, the water crisis in the DRC can be categorized as an economic water scarcity problem, hindering development in the country. Article 48 of the 2006 Constitution of the DRC recognizes the human right to water. The rehabilitation and development of the water sector is a priority to which the national government committed itself in the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategies and to which it agreed as part of the international framework of the UN Millennium Development Goals. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various Democratic Republic of the Congo-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Mobutu Sese Seko and Richard Nixon in Washington, D.C., 1973. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 2Development of life expectancy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 3Population fleeing their villages due to fighting between FARDC and rebels groups, Sake North Kivu 30 April 2012 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 4The map of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 5Congolese soldiers being trained by UN personnel. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 6DR Congo's Human Development Index scores, 1970–2010. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 7The four Bantu languages with elevated "national" status. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 8Branhamist worshippers in Kinshasa (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 9The leader of ABAKO, Joseph Kasa-Vubu, first democratically elected President of Congo-Léopoldville (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 10Congo Free State official Camille Coquilhat with the Bangala chief Mata-Buiké in c. 1888 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 11Ndeemba Mask (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 12Joseph Kabila was President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from January 2001 to January 2019. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 13Found in the Congolian rainforests, the okapi was unknown to science until 1901 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 14Train from Lubumbashi arriving in Kindu on a newly refurbished line. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 15A Hemba male statue (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 16Rough diamonds ≈1 to 1.5 mm in size from DR Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 17Children mutilated during King Leopold II's rule (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 18Patrice Lumumba, founding member and leader of the MNC (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 19Ugandan President Idi Amin Visits Zaire and Meets Mobutu during The Shaba I Conflict (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 20A classroom in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 21Refugees in the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 22Change in per capita GDP of Congo, 1950–2018. Figures are inflation-adjusted to 2011 International dollars. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 23Map of the Kingdom of Kongo (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 24A Congolese Christian. (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 25Government troops near Goma during the M23 rebellion in May 2013 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 26Abeti Masikini in 1978 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 27Flag of CNDP (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 28Mobutu Sese Seko (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 29People fleeing their villages due to fighting between FARDC and rebel groups, North Kivu, 2012 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 30Masque féminin Ngaady a mwaash, XIX-XXe siècles (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 31Kasaï-Central province, where the Kamwina Nsapu militia clashes with security forces began. (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 32Arab slave raid on Nyangwe, circa 1870 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 33Force Publique soldiers in the Belgian Congo in 1918. At its peak, the Force Publique had around 19,000 Congolese soldiers, led by 420 Belgian officers. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 34Breakdown of the largest ethnic groups in DRC (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 35Democratic Republic of the Congo's population between 1960 and 2017. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 361908 photograph of a married Christian couple. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 37Map of rail network (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 38Our Lady of Peace Cathedral in Bukavu (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 39Collecting firewood in Basankusu. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 40Franco Luambo and his OK Jazz orchestra performing live at Zaire 74 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 41The endangered mountain gorilla; half of its population live in the DRC's Virunga National Park, making the park a critical habitat for these animals. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 42A map of the major Bantu languages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 43A woman carrying bananas. (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 44President Félix Tshisekedi with the president of neighbouring Republic of the Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso in 2020; both wear face masks due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 45Memory Board (lukasa) - Luba Kingdom (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 46Ituri Rainforest (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 47A group of demobilized child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 48Belligerents of the Second Congo War (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 49Mobutu with the Dutch Prince Bernhard in Kinshasa in 1973 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 50Democratic Republic of the Congo map of Köppen climate classification (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 51Roman Catholic Church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 52Patrice Lumumba, first democratically elected Prime Minister of the Congo-Léopoldville, was murdered by Belgian-supported Katangan separatists in 1961. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 53View of Leopoldville Station and Port in 1884 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 54The Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral, Lubumbashi (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 55President Joseph Kabila with U.S. President Barack Obama in August 2014 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)

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The Free Republic of the Congo (French: République Libre du Congo), often referred to as Congo-Stanleyville, was a short-lived rival government to the Republic of the Congo (Congo-Léopoldville) based in the eastern Congo and led by Antoine Gizenga.

Following Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba's deposition in September 1960 in the midst of the Congo Crisis, many of his supporters became disillusioned with the government in Léopoldville (modern-day Kinshasa). Under Lumumba's deputy, Antoine Gizenga, leftists organised in Stanleyville (modern-day Kisangani) and in December declared their own government to be the legal successor to the prime minister's administration. Gizenga quickly amassed military strength and, by February 1961, had occupied vast portions of Congolese territory. In August, negotiations between the two governments resulted in Gizenga agreeing to stand down. He returned to the office of deputy under the new prime minister, Cyrille Adoula. Still, Gizenga distanced himself from the central administration and rebuilt his own political and military power. The rival government was not fully reintegrated into the Republic of the Congo until Gizenga was arrested in January 1962. (Full article...)

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Lihau c. 1990

Marcel Antoine Lihau or Ebua Libana la Molengo Lihau (29 September 1931 – 9 April 1999) was a Congolese jurist, law professor and politician who served as the inaugural First President of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Congo from 1968 until 1975, and was involved in the creation of two constitutions for the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Lihau attended the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium with the help of sympathetic Jesuit educators, becoming one of the first Congolese to study law. While there he encouraged Congolese politicians to form an alliance that allowed them to secure the independence of the Congo from Belgium. He served briefly as a justice official and negotiator for the Congolese central government before being appointed to lead a commission to draft a permanent national constitution. He was made dean of law faculty at Lovanium University in 1963. The following year he helped deliver the Luluabourg Constitution to the Congolese, which was adopted by referendum. (Full article...)