Portal:Democratic Republic of the Congo

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

The Democratic Republic of the Congo Portal

P:DRC

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

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply Congo, is a country in Central Africa. By land area the country is the second-largest country in Africa and the 11th-largest in the world. With a population of around 111 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most populous nominally Francophone country in the world. 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 Congo was first inhabited by Central African foragers around 90,000 years ago and was settled in the Bantu expansion about 3000 to 2000 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 center and east, the empires of Mwene Muji, Luba, and Lunda ruled from the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 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 and the assassination of President Laurent-Désiré Kabila. The war ended under President Joseph Kabila, who governed the country from 2001 to 2019 and 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 in a highly contentious election won by Félix Tshisekedi, who has served as president since. Since 2015, eastern Congo has been the site of an ongoing military conflict.

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. As of 2018^[update], 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...)

More about the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Selected article - show another

The Kivu conflict is an umbrella term for a series of protracted armed conflicts in the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo which have occurred since the end of the Second Congo War. Including neighboring Ituri province, there are more than 120 different armed groups active in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Currently, some of the most active rebel groups include the Allied Democratic Forces, the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo, the March 23 Movement, and many local Mai Mai militias. In addition to rebel groups and the governmental FARDC troops, a number of national and international organizations have intervened militarily in the conflict, including the United Nations force known as MONUSCO, and an East African Community regional force.

Conflict began in 2004 in the eastern Congo as an armed conflict between the military of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) and the Hutu Power group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It has broadly consisted of three phases, the third of which is an ongoing conflict. Prior to March 2009, the main combatant group against the FARDC was the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP). Following the cessation of hostilities between these two forces, rebel Tutsi forces, formerly under the command of Laurent Nkunda, became the dominant opposition to the government forces. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

General images - show another

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

Image 1Kasaï-Central province, where the Kamwina Nsapu militia clashes with security forces began. (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 2Mobutu Sese Seko (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 3The 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 4Refugees in the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 5Patrice 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 6The map of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 7Congo Free State official Camille Coquilhat with the Bangala chief Mata-Buiké in c. 1888 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 8Train from Lubumbashi arriving in Kindu on a newly refurbished line. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 9Arab slave raid on Nyangwe, circa 1870 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 10A classroom in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 11Abeti Masikini in 1978 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 12Memory Board (lukasa) - Luba Kingdom (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 13Mobutu Sese Seko and Richard Nixon in Washington, D.C., 1973. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 14Democratic Republic of the Congo map of Köppen climate classification (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 15Collecting firewood in Basankusu. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 16Belligerents of the Second Congo War (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 17Our Lady of Peace Cathedral in Bukavu (from 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 19Children mutilated during King Leopold II's rule (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 20A map of the major Bantu languages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 21Population fleeing their villages due to fighting between FARDC and rebels groups, Sake North Kivu 30 April 2012 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 22Roman Catholic Church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 23Government troops near Goma during the M23 rebellion in May 2013 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 24A group of demobilized child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 25President Joseph Kabila with U.S. President Barack Obama in August 2014 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 26Franco Luambo and his OK Jazz orchestra performing live at Zaire 74 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 27Mobutu with the Dutch Prince Bernhard in Kinshasa in 1973 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 28Ugandan President Idi Amin Visits Zaire and Meets Mobutu during The Shaba I Conflict (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 29Found in the Congolian rainforests, the okapi was unknown to science until 1901 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 30Flag of CNDP (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 31Force 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 32A Hemba male statue (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 33Change in per capita GDP of Congo, 1950–2018. Figures are inflation-adjusted to 2011 International dollars. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 34Ituri Rainforest (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 36People fleeing their villages due to fighting between FARDC and rebel groups, North Kivu, 2012 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 37A Congolese Christian. (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 38Congolese soldiers being trained by UN personnel. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 39View of Leopoldville Station and Port in 1884 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 40The Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral, Lubumbashi (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 41The leader of ABAKO, Joseph Kasa-Vubu, first democratically elected President of Congo-Léopoldville (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 42Rough diamonds ≈1 to 1.5 mm in size from DR Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 43Masque féminin Ngaady a mwaash, XIX-XXe siècles (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 441908 photograph of a married Christian couple. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 45Branhamist worshippers in Kinshasa (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 46Map of rail network (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 47Lake Kivu in North Kivu province (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 48Development of life expectancy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 49Map of the Kingdom of Kongo (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 50Breakdown of the largest ethnic groups in DRC (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 51Joseph Kabila was President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from January 2001 to January 2019. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 52The four Bantu languages with elevated "national" status. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 53DR Congo's Human Development Index scores, 1970–2010. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 54President 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 55Ndeemba Mask (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 56A woman carrying bananas. (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)

Good article - show another

This is a Good article, an article that meets a core set of high editorial standards.

Antoine-Roger Bolamba, later Bolamba Lokolé J'ongungu (27 July 1913 – 9 July 2002), was a Congolese journalist, writer, and politician. He edited the monthly journal La Voix du Congolais from 1945 until 1959. He also served as Secretary of State for Information and Cultural Affairs of the Republic of the Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) in 1960 and then as Minister of Information and Tourism from 1963 until 1964.

Bolamba was born to a Mongo family in 1913 in the Belgian Congo. During his education he took interest in French literature and soon thereafter began to write, publishing various works and contributing to Congolese periodicals. He gained public attention in 1939 after winning awards for his writing. In 1944 he was hired by the colonial government to manage its press division, and the following year he was made editor-in-chief of a new publication, La Voix du Congolais. Bolamba held much influence in the city of Léopoldville and frequently discussed the social implications of colonialism. He also began writing poetry, and in 1956 he released a collection entitled Esanzo: Chants pour mon pays, which articulated his Mongo and Congolese identity. (Full article...)

List of Good articles
Belgian Congo in World War II Abir Congo Company Yellala Falls South Kasai Free Republic of the Congo Atrocities in the Congo Free State Congo Crisis Congolese Independence Speech Common eland Barthélemy Mukenge Jean-Chrysostome Weregemere Steve Zakuani Laurent Eketebi William Henry Sheppard Okapi Battle of Rejaf

Featured article - show another

This is a Featured article, which represents some of the best content on English Wikipedia..

Tintin in the Congo (French: Tintin au Congo; French pronunciation: [tɛ̃tɛ̃ o kɔ̃go]) is the second volume of The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian comic strip artist Hergé. Commissioned by the conservative Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle for its children's supplement Le Petit Vingtième, it was serialised weekly from May 1930 to June 1931 before being published in a collected volume by Éditions de Petit Vingtième in 1931. The story tells of young Belgian reporter Tintin and his dog Snowy, who are sent to the Belgian Congo to report on events in the country. Amid various encounters with the native Congolese people and wild animals, Tintin unearths a criminal diamond smuggling operation run by the American gangster Al Capone.

Following on from Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and bolstered by publicity stunts, Tintin in the Congo was a commercial success within Belgium and was also serialised in France. Hergé continued The Adventures of Tintin with Tintin in America in 1932, and the series subsequently became a defining part of the Franco-Belgian comics tradition. In 1946, Hergé re-drew and coloured Tintin in the Congo in his distinctive ligne-claire style for republication by Casterman, with further alterations made at the request of his Scandinavian publisher for a 1975 edition. (Full article...)