# Democratic Republic of the Congo

Democratic Republic of the Congo

sovereign state, country| Part of | Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries  |
| Year dem found am | 30 June 1960  |
| Official name | République démocratique du Congo  |
| Native label | République démocratique du Congo  |
| IPA transcription | dən dɛmuˈkɾɑːtɪskə rɛpʉˈblɪkən ˈkɔŋɡu  |
| Ethnic group | Mongo, Luba people, Kongo people, Mangbetu people, Zande people  |
| Participant insyd | Kivu conflict  |
| Dem name after | Congo River  |
| Official language | French  |
| Anthem | Debout Congolais  |
| Culture | culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo  |
| Motto text | Justice – Paix – Travail, Justice – Peace – Work, Справедливост - мир - труд, Cyfiawnder - Heddwch - Gwaith  |
| Continent | Africa  |
| Country | Democratic Republic of the Congo  |
| Capital | Kinshasa  |
| Located in time zone | UTC+01:00, UTC+02:00  |
| Located in or next to body of water | Atlantic Ocean  |
| Located in/on physical feature | Central Africa  |
| Coordinate location | 2°52′48″S 23°39′22″E  |
| Coordinates of easternmost point | 2°7′37″N 31°18′47″E  |
| Coordinates of northernmost point | 5°24′0″N 25°31′48″E  |
| Coordinates of southernmost point | 13°27′32″S 29°43′34″E  |
| Coordinates of westernmost point | 5°46′44″S 12°12′25″E  |
| Highest point | Mount Stanley  |
| Lowest point | Atlantic Ocean  |
| Government ein basic form | republic  |
| Office held by head of state | President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo  |
| State ein head | Félix Tshisekedi  |
| Office head of government hold | Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo  |
| Government ein head | Ilunga Ilunkamba Sylvestre  |
| Executive body | Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo  |
| Legislative body | Parliament of the Democratic Republic of the Congo  |
| Central bank | Central Bank of Congo  |
| Currency | Congolese franc  |
| Driving side | right  |
| Electrical plug type | Europlug, AC power plugs and sockets: British and related types, Type E  |
| Dey replace | Zaire  |
| Studied by | Congolese studies (Democratic Republic of Congo)  |
| Hashtag | DemocraticRepublicoftheCongo  |
| Top-level Internet domain | .cd  |
| Flag | flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo  |
| Coat of arms | Arms of the Democratic Republic of the Congo  |
| Official symbol | Okapia johnstoni  |
| Geography of topic | Geography of the Democratic Republic of the Congo  |
| Get characteristic | not-free country  |
| History of topic | history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo  |
| Economy of topic | economy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo  |
| Demographics of topic | demographics of the Democratic Republic of the Congo  |
| Mobile country code | 630  |
| Country calling code | +243  |
| Emergency phone number | 113, 114, 118  |
| Licence plate code | CGO  |
| Maritime identification digits | 676  |
| Unicode character | 🇨🇩  |
| Category for maps or plans | Category:Maps of the Democratic Republic of the Congo  |

De **Democratic Republic of the Congo** (**DRC**), dem sanso know as **Congo-Kinshasa**, **DRC**, **DR Congo**, anaa simply **the Congo** wey dem know am from 1971–1997 as Zaire, be sam country for Central Africa. By land area, de DRC be sam second-largest country for Africa, after Algeria, den de 11th-largest for de world insyd. Plus sam population of around 112 million, de Democratic Republic of de Congo be de most populous officially Francophone country for de de world insyd. De national capital den largest city be Kinshasa, wey e sanso be de economic center. De country dey border de Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania (across Lake Tanganyika), Zambia, Angola, de Cabinda exclave of Angola, den de South Atlantic Ocean.

De country be member of de United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, African Union, COMESA, Southern African Development Community, *Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie*, den Economic Community of Central African States.

## Administrative divisions

Dem divide de country currently into de city-province of Kinshasa den 25 oda provinces. De provinces be subdivided into 145 territories den 32 cities. Before 2015, na de country get 11 provinces.

|  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
|  | 1. Kinshasa | 14. Ituri Province |
| 2. Kongo Central | 15. Haut-Uele |
| 3. Kwango | 16. Tshopo |
| 4. Kwilu Province | 17. Bas-Uele |
| 5. Mai-Ndombe Province | 18. Nord-Ubangi |
| 6. Kasaï Province | 19. Mongala |
| 7. Kasaï-Central | 20. Sud-Ubangi |
| 8. Kasaï-Oriental | 21. Équateur |
| 9. Lomami Province | 22. Tshuapa |
| 10. Sankuru | 23. Tanganyika Province |
| 11. Maniema | 24. Haut-Lomami |
| 12. South Kivu | 25. Lualaba Province |
| 13. North Kivu | 26. Haut-Katanga Province |

## Demographics

### Population

De CIA World Factbook estimate de population say e be ova 111 million as of 2023. Between 1950 den 2000, de country ein population nearly quadruple from 12.2 million go 46.9 million.

### Ethnic groups

Ova 250 ethnic groups den 450 tribes (ethnic subgroups) populate de DRC. Dem dey insyd de Bantu, Sudanic, Nilotic, Ubangian den Pygmy linguistic groups. Secof dis diversity, no dominant ethnic group dey insyd Congo, howeva de ethnic groups wey dey follow account for 51.5% of de population:

* Luba-Kasaï
* Kongo
* Mongo
* Lubakat
* Lulua
* Tetela
* Nande
* Ngbandi
* Ngombe
* Yaka
* Ngbaka

Insyd 2021, de UN estimate de country ein population say e be 96 million, rapid increase from 39.1 million insyd 1992 despite de war wey dey go on. Dem identify as many as 250 ethnic groups wey dem name. About 600,000 Pygmies dey live insyd de DRC.

### Largest cities

| Largest cities anaa towns insyd de Democratic Republic of the Congo |
| --- |
|  | Rank | Name | Province | Pop. |  |
|  | 1 | Kinshasa | Kinshasa | 15,628,000 |  |
| 2 | Mbuji-Mayi | Kasai-Oriental | 2,765,000 |
| 3 | Lubumbashi | Haut-Katanga | 2,695,000 |
| 4 | Kananga | Kasaï-Central | 1,593,000 |
| 5 | Kisangani | Tshopo | 1,366,000 |
| 6 | Bukavu | South Kivu | 1,190,000 |
| 7 | Tshikapa | Kasaï | 1,024,000 |
| 8 | Bunia | Ituri | 768,000 |
| 9 | Goma | North Kivu | 707,000 |
| 10 | Uvira | South Kivu | 657,000 |

## You fi read further

* Clark, John F., *The African Stakes of the Congo War*, 2004.
* Callaghy, T., *The State-Society Struggle: Zaire in Comparative Perspective*. New York: Columbia University Press, 1984, ISBN 0-231-05720-2.
* Deibert, Michael: *The Democratic Republic of Congo: Between Hope and Despair*, Zed Books, 2013.
* Devlin, Larry (2007). *Chief of Station, Congo: A Memoir of 1960–67*. New York: PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1-58648-405-7.
* Drummond, Bill and Manning, Mark, *The Wild Highway*, 2005.
* Edgerton, Robert, *The Troubled Heart of Africa: A History of the Congo.* St. Martin's Press, 2002.
* Exenberger, Andreas/Hartmann, Simon. *The Dark Side of Globalization. The Vicious Cycle of Exploitation from World Market Integration: Lesson from the Congo* Archived 15 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Working Papers in Economics and Statistics 31, University Innsbruck 2007.
* Exenberger, Andreas/Hartmann, Simon. *Doomed to Disaster? Long-term Trajectories of Exploitation in the Congo*, Paper to be presented at the Workshop "Colonial Extraction in the Netherlands Indies and Belgian Congo: Institutions, Institutional Change and Long Term Consequences", Utrecht 3–4 December 2010.
* Gondola, Ch. Didier, "The History of Congo", Westport: Greenwood Press, 2002.
* Joris, Lieve, translated by Waters, Liz, *The Rebels' Hour*, Atlantic, 2008.
* Justenhoven, Heinz-Gerhard; Ehrhart, Hans Georg. Intervention im Kongo: eine kritische Analyse der Befriedungspolitik von UN und EU. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag, 2008. (In German) ISBN 978-3-17-020781-3.
* Kingsolver, Barbara. *The Poisonwood Bible* HarperCollins, 1998.
* Larémont, Ricardo René, ed. 2005. *Borders, nationalism and the African state*. Boulder, Colorado and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
* Lemarchand, Reni and Hamilton, Lee; *Burundi: Ethnic Conflict and Genocide.* Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1994.
* Mealer, Bryan: "All Things Must Fight To Live", 2008. ISBN 1-59691-345-2.
* Melvern, Linda, *Conspiracy to Murder: The Rwandan Genocide and the International Community*. Verso, 2004.
* Miller, Eric: "The Inability of Peacekeeping to Address the Security Dilemma", 2010. ISBN 978-3-8383-4027-2.
* Mwakikagile, Godfrey, *Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era*, Third Edition, New Africa Press, 2006, "Chapter Six: Congo in The Sixties: The Bleeding Heart of Africa", pp. 147–205, ISBN 978-0-9802534-1-2; Mwakikagile, Godfrey, *Africa and America in The Sixties: A Decade That Changed The Nation and The Destiny of A Continent*, First Edition, New Africa Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-9802534-2-9; *Congo in The Sixties,* ISBN 978-1448665709, 2009; *Africa: Dawn of a New Era,* ISBN 978-9987160488, 2015.
* Nzongola-Ntalaja, Georges, *The Congo from Leopold to Kabila: A People's History*, 2002.
* O'Hanlon, Redmond, *Congo Journey*, 1996.
* O'Hanlon, Redmond, *No Mercy: A Journey into the Heart of the Congo*, 1998.
* Prunier, Gérard, *Africa's World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe*, 2011 (also published as *From Genocide to Continental War: The Congolese Conflict and the Crisis of Contemporary Africa: The Congo Conflict and the Crisis of Contemporary Africa*).
* Renton, David; Seddon, David; Zeilig, Leo. *The Congo: Plunder and Resistance*, 2007. ISBN 978-1-84277-485-4.
* Reyntjens, Filip, *The Great African War: Congo and Regional Geopolitics, 1996–2006* , 2009.
* Rorison, Sean, *Bradt Travel Guide: Congo  — Democratic Republic/Republic*, 2008.
* Schulz, Manfred. *Entwicklungsträger in der DR Kongo: Entwicklungen in Politik, Wirtschaft, Religion, Zivilgesellschaft und Kultur*, Berlin: Lit, 2008, (in German) ISBN 978-3-8258-0425-1.
* Stearns, Jason: *Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: the Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa*, Public Affairs, 2011.
* Tayler, Jeffrey, *Facing the Congo*, 2001.
* Turner, Thomas, *The Congo Wars: Conflict, Myth and Reality*, 2007.
* Van Reybrouck, David, *Congo: The Epic History of a People*, 2014
* Wrong, Michela, *In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu's Congo*.

* Official website.
* Country Profile from the BBC News
* Democratic Republic of the Congo. *The World Factbook*. Central Intelligence Agency.
* Democratic Republic of the Congo from *UCB Libraries GovPubs*
* The Democratic Republic of Congo from Global Issues