The Democratic Republic of the Congo Portal

TheDemocratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as theDR Congo,Congo-Kinshasa, or simply theCongo, or more infrequentlyZaire (its official name from 1971 to 1997), is a country inCentral Africa. By land area, it is thesecond-largest country in Africa and the11th-largest in the world. With a population of around 112 million, the DR Congo is thefourth-most populous in Africa and the most populous nominallyFrancophone country in the world.French is the official and most widely spoken language, though there areover 200 indigenous languages. The national capital and largest city isKinshasa, which is also the economic center. The country is bordered by theRepublic of the Congo, theCabinda exclave of Angola, and theSouth Atlantic Ocean to the west; theCentral African Republic andSouth Sudan to the north;Uganda,Rwanda,Burundi, andTanzania (acrossLake Tanganyika) to the east; andZambia andAngola to thesouth. Centered on theCongo Basin, most of the country'sterrain is covered bydense rainforests and is crossed by many rivers, while the east and southeast are mountainous.

The territory of the Congo was first inhabited byCentral African foragers around 90,000 years ago and was settled in theBantu expansion about 2,000 to 3,000 years ago. In the west, theKingdom of Kongo ruled around the mouth of theCongo River from the 14th to the 19th century. In the center and east, the empires ofMwene Muji,Luba, andLunda ruled between the 15th and 19th centuries. These kingdoms were broken up by Europeans during thecolonization of the Congo Basin. KingLeopold II of Belgium acquired rights to the Congo territory in 1885 and called it theCongo Free State. In 1908, Leopoldceded the territory after international pressure in response towidespread atrocities, and it became aBelgian colony. Congo achievedindependence fromBelgium in 1960 and was immediately confronted by a series ofsecessionist movements, the assassination of Prime MinisterPatrice Lumumba, and theseizure of power byMobutu Sese Seko in 1965. Mobutu renamed the countryZaire in 1971 and imposed apersonalist dictatorship.

Instability caused by the influx of refugees from theRwandan Civil War into the eastern part of the country led to theFirst 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 theSecond Congo War from 1998 to 2003, which resulted in the deaths of 5.4 million people and the assassination of PresidentLaurent-Désiré Kabila. The war, widely described as the deadliest conflict sinceWorld War II, ended under PresidentJoseph Kabila, who restored relative stability to much of the country, although fighting continued at a lower level mainly in the east.Human rights remained poor, and there were frequent abuses, such asforced disappearances, torture, arbitrary imprisonment and restrictions on civil liberties. Kabila stepped down in 2019, the country's firstpeaceful transition of power since independence, afterFélix Tshisekedi won the highly contentious2018 general election. Since the early 2000s, there have beenover 100 armed groups active in the DRC,mainly concentrated in the Kivu region. One of its largest cities,Goma, was occupied by theMarch 23 Movement (M23) rebelsbriefly in 2012 andagain in 2025. TheM23 uprising escalated in early 2025 after the capture of multiple cities in the east, with military support fromRwanda, which has caused aconflict between the two countries. Apeace agreement brokered by theUnited States was signed by Rwanda and the DRC on 27 June 2025.

Despite being incredibly rich innatural resources, the DRC is one of the poorest countries in the world, having suffered from political instability, a lack of infrastructure, rampant corruption, 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 andMbuji-Mayi, are bothmining communities. The DRC's largest exports are rawminerals andmetal, which accounted for 80% of exports in 2023, withChina being its largest trade partner. For 2023, DR Congo's level of human development was ranked 171 out of 193 countries by theHuman Development Index. It is classified as being one of theleast developed countries by theUnited Nations (UN). As of 2022^[update], following two decades ofvarious civil wars andcontinued internal conflicts, around one million Congolese refugees were still living in neighbouring countries. Two million children are at risk of 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, andEconomic Community of Central African States. (Full article...)

Selected article -show another

Basankusu Market

Basankusu is a town inÉquateur Province,Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is the main town andadministrative centre of theBasankusu Territory. In 2004, it had an estimated population of 23,764. It has a gravelairstrip, covered and open markets, a hospital, and three cellphone networks, the first of which was installed in 2006. The town is also known as a centre forbonobo conservation efforts. Despite such developments, most inhabitants live at a subsistence level: hunting, fishing, keeping chickens and keeping a vegetable plot. In 2010, the workers at the local palm plantation would earn an average monthly salary of $40 (US dollars), most others would have much less.

The location of the town on theLulonga River, atributary of the Congo, at theconfluence of the Lopori and Maringa Rivers has contributed to its success as a centre for trade in the region. Set deep in tropical rainforest, the rivers serve as the highways for transport of people as well as goods. (Full article...)

General images -show another

Good article -show another

Laurent Eketebi in 1960

Laurent-Gabriel Eketebi, laterEketebi Moyidiba Mondjolomba (13 May 1936 – February 2006), was a Congolese politician who served as President ofÉquateur Province from June 1960 until September 1962 and as President of Moyen-Congo Province from then until June 1964. He later served as State Commissioner of Transport and Communications from July 1972 until January 1975, when he was dismissed and charged with various financial crimes. Eketebi was convicted, but received a pardon in 1994. He died in 2006. (Full article...)

Featured article -show another

Jason Sendwe (1917 – 19 June 1964) was a Congolese politician and the founder and leader of theGeneral Association of the Baluba of the Katanga (BALUBAKAT) party. He later served as Second Deputy Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (thenRepublic of the Congo) from August 1961 until January 1963, and as President of theProvince of North Katanga from September 1963 until his death, with a brief interruption.

Sendwe was born in 1917 in Mwanya,Kabongo Territory, Belgian Congo, to an ethnicBaluba family. He was educated inMethodist schools and nursing institutions. Unable to become a doctor due to a lack of medical schools in the Congo, he found work as a minister, teacher, and nurse. He became involved in several cultural organisations, and in 1957 founded BALUBAKAT to fight for the interests of the Baluba. He espousedCongolese nationalism and believed that the Congo should remain a united country after Belgian rule. In May 1960, shortly before the country's independence, he was elected to the newly constitutedChamber of Deputies. Sendwe sought to obtain control over the government ofKatanga Province, but lost to a power struggle against his rival,Moïse Tshombe, and theConfederation of Tribal Associations of Katanga (CONAKAT) party. Regardless, Prime MinisterPatrice Lumumba nominated him for the office of State Commissioner for Katanga. (Full article...)

WikiProjects

WikiProject Democratic Republic of the Congo

WikiProject Africa

Topics

Categories

Related portals

Associated Wikimedia

The followingWikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

• 

  List of all portals
• 
  The arts portal
• 
  Biography portal
• 
  Current events portal
• 
  Geography portal
• 
  History portal
• 
  Mathematics portal
• 
  Science portal
• 
  Society portal
• 
  Technology portal

• 

  Random portal

• 

  WikiProject Portals