Portal:Democratic Republic of the Congo

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 the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo, is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is the second-largest country in Africa and the 11th-largest in the world. With a population of around 115 million, the DR Congo is the most populous nominally Francophone country in the world. French is the official and most widely spoken language, though there are over 200 indigenous languages. The national capital and largest city is Kinshasa, which is also the economic center. The country is bordered by the Republic of the Congo, the Cabinda exclave of Angola, and the South Atlantic Ocean to the west; the Central African Republic and South Sudan to the north; Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania (across Lake Tanganyika) to the east; and Zambia and Angola to the south. Centered on the Congo Basin, most of the country's terrain is covered by dense rainforests and crossed by many rivers, while the east and southeast are mountainous.

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 2,000 to 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 center and east, the empires of Mwene Muji, Luba, and Lunda ruled between the 15th and 19th centuries. These kingdoms were broken up by Europeans during the colonization of the Congo Basin. King Leopold II of Belgium acquired rights to the Congo territory in 1885 and called it the Congo Free State. In 1908, Leopold ceded the territory after international pressure in response to widespread atrocities, and it became a Belgian colony. Congo achieved independence from Belgium in 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 1965. Mobutu renamed the country Zaire in 1971 and imposed a personalist dictatorship.

Instability caused by the influx of refugees from the Rwandan Civil War into the eastern part of the country led to the First Congo War from 1996 to 1997, ending in the overthrow of Mobutu. Its name was changed back to the DRC and it 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, widely described as the deadliest conflict since World War II, ended under President Joseph Kabila, who restored relative stability to the much of the country, although fighting continued at a lower level mainly in the east. Human rights remained poor and included frequent abuses such as forced disappearances, torture, arbitrary imprisonment and restrictions on civil liberties. Kabila stepped down in 2019, the country's first peaceful transition of power since independence, after Félix Tshisekedi won the highly contentious 2018 general election. Since the early 2000s there have been over 100 armed groups active in the DRC, mainly concentrated in the Kivu region. One of its largest cities, Goma, was occupied by the March 23 Movement (M23) rebels briefly in 2012 and again in 2025. The M23 uprising escalated in early 2025 after the capture of multiple cities in the east, including with military support from Rwanda, which has caused a conflict between the two countries.

Despite being incredibly rich in natural resources, the DRC is one of the poorest countries in the world, having suffered from political instability, a lack of infrastructure, rampant corruption, and centuries of both commercial and colonial extraction and exploitation, followed by more than 60 years of independence, with little widespread development; the nation is a prominent example of the "resource curse". Besides the capital Kinshasa, the two next largest cities, Lubumbashi and Mbuji-Mayi, are both mining communities. The DRC's largest exports are raw minerals and metal, which were 80% of exports in 2023, with China being its largest trade partner. In 2024, DR Congo's level of human development was ranked 180th out of 193 countries by the Human Development Index and it is classified as being one of the least developed countries by the United Nations (UN). As of 2022^[update], following two decades of various civil wars and continued internal conflicts, around one million Congolese refugees were still living in neighbouring countries. Two million children risk starvation, and the fighting has displaced 7.3 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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Zaire, officially the Republic of Zaire, was the name of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1971 to 18 May 1997. Located in Central Africa, it was, by area, the third-largest country in Africa after Sudan and Algeria, and the 11th-largest country in the world from 1965 to 1997. With a population of over 23 million, Zaire was the most populous Francophone country in Africa. Zaire was strategically important to the West during the Cold War, particularly the U.S., as a counterbalance to Soviet influence in Africa. The U.S. and its allies supported the Mobutu regime (1965–1997) with military and economic aid to prevent the spread of communism.

The country was a one-party totalitarian military dictatorship, run by Mobutu Sese Seko and his Popular Movement of the Revolution. Zaire was established following Mobutu's seizure of power in a military coup in 1965, after five years of political upheaval following independence from Belgium known as the Congo Crisis. Zaire had a strongly centralist constitution, and foreign assets were nationalized. The period is sometimes referred to as the Second Congolese Republic. (Full article...)

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

Image 1The 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 2Memory Board (lukasa) - Luba Kingdom (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 3Force 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 4Congo Free State official Camille Coquilhat with the Bangala chief Mata-Buiké, c. 1888 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 5People fleeing their villages due to fighting between FARDC and rebel groups, North Kivu, 2012 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 6A mining site in the Haut-Katanga Province (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 7Refugees in the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 8Arab slave raid on Nyangwe, c. 1870 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 9A map of the major Bantu languages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 10The leader of ABAKO, Joseph Kasa-Vubu, first democratically elected President of Congo-Léopoldville (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 11A Hemba male statue (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 12Patrice 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 131908 photograph of a married Christian couple (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 14Flag of CNDP (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 15Development of life expectancy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 16President Joseph Kabila with U.S. President Barack Obama in August 2014 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 17Brahmanist worshippers in Kinshasa (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 18Roman Catholic Church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 19Map of the Kingdom of Kongo (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 20The Matadi railway station, part of the Matadi–Kinshasa Railway (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 21President 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 22The four Bantu languages with elevated "national" status (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 23Children mutilated during King Leopold II's rule (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 24Abeti Masikini in 1978 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 25Change in per capita GDP of Congo, 1950–2018. Figures are inflation-adjusted to 2011 international dollars. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 26The map of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 27Mobutu Sese Seko (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 28Ndeemba Mask (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 29Population fleeing their villages due to fighting between FARDC and rebels groups, Sake North Kivu 30 April 2012 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 30Map of the transport network in the DRC, including major rail, road, and water routes (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 31Section of National Road 1 between Boma and Moanda, Kongo Central (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 32A woman carrying bananas. (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 33Breakdown of the largest ethnic groups in DRC (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 34Masque féminin Ngaady a mwaash, XIX-XXe siècles (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 35A group of demobilized child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 36Found in the Congolian rainforests, the okapi was unknown to science until 1901. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 37Franco Luambo and his OK Jazz orchestra performing live at Zaire 74 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 38Government troops near Goma during the M23 rebellion in May 2013 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 39The Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral, Lubumbashi (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 40Our Lady of Peace Cathedral in Bukavu (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 41Ituri Rainforest (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 42Ugandan President Idi Amin Visits Zaire and Meets Mobutu during The Shaba I Conflict (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 43Democratic Republic of the Congo's population between 1960 and 2017 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 44DR Congo's Human Development Index scores, 1970–2010 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 45A classroom in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 46Patrice Lumumba, founding member and leader of the MNC (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 47Democratic Republic of the Congo map of Köppen climate classification (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 48Congolese soldiers being trained by UN personnel (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 49Mobutu with the Dutch Prince Bernhard in Kinshasa in 1973 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 50A Congolese Christian. (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 51Rough diamonds ≈1 to 1.5 mm in size from the DR Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 52Belligerents of the Second Congo War (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 53View of Leopoldville Station and Port in 1884 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 54Lake Kivu in North Kivu province (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 55Kasaï-Central province, where the Kamwina Nsapu militia clashes with security forces began. (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 56Mobutu Sese Seko and Richard Nixon in Washington, D.C., 1973 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)

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Mukenge in 1960

Barthélemy Mukenge Nsumpi Shabantu (3 August 1925 – 4 July 2018) was a Congolese politician who served as President of Kasaï Province from 11 June 1960 to January 1962 and July to September 1962. He was a president of the Association des Lulua-Frères, a Lulua ethnic syndicate, and a leading member of the Union National Congolaise. Though initially allied with nationalist Patrice Lumumba, he later denounced him and aligned himself with more moderate politicians. Following the division of Kasai Province in late 1962, Mukenge became Minister of Health and Minister of Social Affairs of the new Luluabourg Province. He later served as Governor of Kivu Province and on the Political Bureau of the Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution. He withdrew from politics in 1974 and died in 2018. (Full article...)

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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...)