Language: French, Swahili, Kikongo and other regional languages
Currency: Congolese franc (CDF)
Calling Code: 243
Democratic Republic of the Congo, also popularly
known as DR Congo, Congo Democratic, Congo-Kinsasa, or Eastern Congo
and called Zaire between 1971 and 1997, is one of the fifty-four
countries that make up the African continent. Its capital and most
populated city is Kinsasa. Located in the equatorial region of
Africa, it comprises a large part of the basin of the Congo River,
extending to the region of the great lakes. It is the second largest
country in the continent, after Algeria. It borders the Central
African Republic and South Sudan to the north, Uganda, Rwanda,
Burundi, and Tanzania to the east, Zambia and Angola to the south,
and the Republic of the Congo to the west. It has access to the sea
through a narrow strip of 37 km of coastline, following the Congo
River to the Gulf of Guinea. The name Congo finds its origin in the
Bakongo natives, settled on the banks of the Nzadi or Zaire River,
renamed in Portuguese as Congo River.
The DRC owns a rich and
varied history that begins with the first Bantu immigrants who
arrived in the area, which would become the epicenter of the great
Kingdom of the Congo in the mid-fifteenth century. After the
territory was claimed by the African International Association
(owned by King Leopold II of Belgium) as a Free State, and then
following a particularly brutal colonization by Belgium, the Belgian
Congo colony would reach independence in 1960, to become Zaire under
the aegis of the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. During the government of
Sese Seko the country was subjected to an authoritarian, violent and
kleptocratic government, which ruined the economy of the Congo. The
fall of the latter led to the start of a serious civil war that
would degenerate into a continental conflagration, in which armed
forces from more than seven countries intervened, leaving as tragic
more than four million deaths. The result was the intervention of
the UN with its peace forces organized in MONUC.
Between 2003
and 2007 the country experienced a tense calm, under the direction
of a transitional government. At the end of 2006 there were
elections in which he was elected for President Joseph Kabila, who
until then exercised the functions interim.
Kahuzi-Biéga National Park in Democratic Republic of Congo is home to several gorilla families.
Virunga National Park located in Congo is famous for its wild life and particularly primates.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a country in
western equatorial Africa. The territory of the country occupies the
basin of the Congo River. From the east, the territory of the country is
bounded by the African Rift. In the far west it has access to the sea,
with a coastline of only 37 km, it is one of the smallest coastlines in
the world.
It has a land border with the Republic of the Congo,
the Central African Republic (CAR), South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda,
Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Angola, including the Angolan exclave of
Cabinda.
Partly the territory of the DR Congo belongs to the
equatorial climatic zone, partly to the subequatorial or savannas.
Relief
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a vast central
plateau (Congo Basin) covered in tropical forests, surrounded by
mountains in the east, plains and savannahs in the south and southwest,
and fields in the north. The high Rwenzori mountain range is located on
the eastern borders of the country.
Minerals
The bowels of the
country contain reserves of copper, cobalt, cadmium, bauxite, iron ore,
coal, diamonds, gold, silver, oil, zinc, manganese, tin, uranium. More
than half of the world's explored uranium reserves are located on the
territory of the republic. Large deposits of malachite and
columbite-tantalite. On the territory of the country is part of the
copper belt of Africa.
Animal world
The fauna is widely
represented: elephants, lions, cheetahs, leopards, caracals,
chimpanzees, gorillas, giraffes, okapis, zebras, earthen wolves. The
rivers abound with crocodiles and hippos, and the savannah abounds with
African buffaloes, antelopes and other herbivorous ungulates. There are
also many different snakes, of which the mamba (one of the most
poisonous snakes in the world) stands out. Among the birds: flamingo,
pelican, parrot, heron, sunbird, African spurred lapwing. A large number
of insects, including the malarial mosquito and the tsetse fly that
carries sleeping sickness.
The most ancient people of the Congo were pygmies.
In the II millennium BC. Bantu agricultural tribes began to migrate
from the north, who brought farming, metallurgy with them and
created the first state formations. The most significant among them
was the kingdom of the Congo, which arose around the 14th century,
which covered the north of Angola. The rulers of this state were
called mani-conga, and the capital was the city of Mbansa-Congo.
At the end of the 15th century, Portuguese appeared at the mouth
of the Congo River. The main income of the owners of the Congo was
the slave trade with European countries, especially with Portugal.
Congolese slaves were used on plantations in America.
In
1876, the Belgians entered the country.
In 1885-1908, a
country called the Free State of the Congo was the personal property
of the Belgian King Leopold II. This period of history is
characterized by a brutal dictatorship, forcing the local population
to extract rubber and ivory. In 1908, Leopold sold this territory to
a Belgian state and the country became a colony of Belgium, known as
the Belgian Congo.
In May 1960, the Congo National Movement,
led by Patrice Lumumba, won the elections to the local parliament;
on June 30, 1960, the country gained independence under the name of
the Republic of Congo.
Since the neighboring French colony of
Moyen Congo, located on the right bank of the great African river
Congo, after gaining independence also chose the name "Republic of
the Congo", for some time these countries distinguished by the names
of their capitals - the Republic of Congo-Brazzaville and the
Republic of Congo-Leopoldville (the modern name of Leopoldville is
Kinshasa).
Soon after gaining independence, the country faced
separatism in the southeastern provinces of Katanga (led by Moise
Chombe, leader of the right-wing party CONAKAT, affiliated with the
Belgian corporation Union Minière) and South Kasai (led by Albert
Kalonge, a former associate of Lumumba) .
On September 5,
1960, President Kasavubu removed Prime Minister Lumumba from his
post, which provoked a long-term political crisis in the country.
In 1961, the chief of the General Staff of the Congolese army,
Mobutu (the future dictator who renamed Congo in Zaire in 1971)
secretly extradits (in the guise of kidnapping) the opposition
Lumumbu to his worst enemies - armed formations of the
self-proclaimed Katanga. The separatists, supported by the Belgians,
brutally tortured and killed Lumumba (according to other sources,
the execution of the national leader of the Congo was a planned
special operation of the US CIA).
By January 1963, UN troops
helped the Congo government crush the rebellion in the southeast of
the country. As a result of the civil war, the Caucasian population
left the country, which made up a large diaspora in Katanga (31% of
the more than one hundred thousand white population of the Republic
of Congo as of the first years of independence).
In 1964,
President Kasavubu appointed Moise Chombe, returning from exile,
Prime Minister of the Congo. The Tshombe government suppresses the
Simba Rebellion, raised by Lumumba supporters. In the spring of
1965, the CONACO омombe party won the parliamentary elections.
However, in October, Kasavubu removes Tshombe from the post of head
of government and replaces Evarist Kimba.
In November 1965,
Mobutu, who received financial assistance from the United States and
Belgium to reward his troops, made a coup d'etat and ousted
President Casavuba.
In 1966, the Mobutu government gave the
capital the country a new name - Kinshasa, instead of the old -
Leopoldville.
On October 27, 1971, the country itself was
renamed Zaire.
After the overthrow of the dictatorship of
Mobutu in 1997 (as a result of the First Congolese War), the country
began to bear the modern name - the Democratic Republic of the
Congo.
In 1998-2002, the country became the scene of the
so-called Great African War (Second Congolese War), into which
almost all the states of Central and South Africa were drawn.
He has diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation, which
were established since the USSR on July 7, 1960.
Population: 108,407,721 (2022 est.; 14th in the world).
Annual
growth estimate for 2022 is 3.14% (9th place in the world).
Fertility estimate for 2022 is 5.63 births per woman (3rd in the world).
The birth rate for 2022 is 40.08 per 1000 (7th in the world).
Mortality estimate for 2022 is 7.94 per 1000 (95th in the world).
Infant mortality estimate for 2022 is 60.85 per 1000 (10th in the
world).
The average life expectancy estimate for 2022 is 61.83
years, for men - 60.03 years, for women - 63.69 years.
Infection
with the immunodeficiency virus (HIV) - 0.8% (2018 estimate, 800,000
infected).
Literacy score for 2016 is 77%, for men - 88.5%, for
women - 66.5%. Primary education in the main languages was established
during the colonial period, which was quite rare in Africa at that time.
The urban population estimate for 2022 is 46.8%.
Ethnic
composition: more than 200 peoples and nationalities, 242 languages,
mainly Bantu; the four largest peoples - Mongo, Luba, Kongo and
Mangbetu-Azande together make up 45% of the population.
Religions: Catholics - 29.9%; Protestants - 26.7%; other Christians,
36.5%; kimbangists - 2.8%; Muslims - 1.3%; Aboriginal and syncretic
cults - 2.8%, Baha'is - 0.43%.
Languages
The official language
of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is French, an ethnically neutral
language designed to facilitate communication among the many peoples
living in the country. According to the International Organization of
Francophone Countries (OIF), as of 2022, 51.37% of the population of the
DRC speaks French. The DRC is the second largest French-speaking country
in the world after France in absolute numbers of the population, in 2022
48,924,702 Congolese, or 51.37% of the population of the DRC, could read
and write in French, against 66,393,815 French, or 96.91% of the
population France who could read and write French. Kinshasa, the capital
of the DRC, is the largest French-speaking city in the world by
population.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a
multilingual country with an estimated total of 242 living spoken
languages. Ethnologue lists 215 languages. The official language is
French, inherited from the colonial period. Four languages have
"national" status: Congo, Lingala, Swahili, Luba.
Lingala
(language of interethnic communication in the center and northwest),
kingwana (Swahili dialect, center and east of the country), kikongo
(extreme southwest), chiluba (center and southwest). During the colonial
period of the country's history, Dutch was also an official language,
but subsequently French replaced it. In total, approximately 242
languages are in circulation on the territory of the state.
When the country was a Belgian colony, 4 languages were already
studied and taught in primary schools, making it one of the few African
countries to have literacy in national languages during the European
colonial period. During the colonial period, Dutch and French were the
official languages, but French was by far the most important language.
Administrative division
The administrative division of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo is governed by the constitution and
current legislation.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is
subdivided into 26 provinces. Each province is headed by a governor, who
is elected by the people for a five-year term. The highest organs of
legislative power in the provinces are local councils of people's
representatives, also elected by the population for a term of five
years.
Fundamentals of the state system
The Democratic
Republic of the Congo is a federal presidential republic. The basic law
of the state is the constitution adopted in 2006. The 2006 constitution,
also known as the constitution of the Third Republic, came into effect
in February 2006. It operated simultaneously with the transitional
constitution until the inauguration of officials elected in the July
2006 elections. Under the new constitution, the DRC parliament remained
bicameral: a Senate of 108 members elected for five years by regional
parliaments and a National Assembly of 500 deputies elected for five
years. years by population. Executive power was divided between the
president and the government, headed by a prime minister from the party
with a majority in the National Assembly. The government became
accountable to parliament, and the president began to be elected for
five years with the possibility of a second term in a row. The new
constitution also gave new powers to the regions. Legislatures in the
provinces received the right to elect governors - heads of regional
governments. Also under the new constitution, the Supreme Court was
divided into three new institutions. The prerogative of interpreting the
constitution passed to the Constitutional Court.
After a four-year transition period between the two constitutions, new political institutions were created at various levels of all branches of government, a new administrative division was adopted, the political system of the DRC finally took on the stable form of a presidential democratic republic. According to the provisions of the transitional constitution of 2003, a legislative body was created, consisting of two chambers - the Senate and the National Assembly. The Senate, among other things, was responsible for drafting the new constitution. Executive power was vested in a 60-member cabinet headed by a president and four vice presidents. The president received the powers of the supreme commander of the armed forces. The transitional constitution also established a relatively independent judiciary, headed by a Supreme Court with the power to interpret the constitution.
The Parliament of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is bicameral:
National Assembly - lower house
Senate - upper house
According to
the results of the 2011 elections, the largest number of seats in the
National Assembly (62 out of 500) was held by the party of President
Joseph Kabila (People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy).
Following the results of the elections to the Senate on January 19,
2007, the presidential party received 22 seats, 7 parties - from 14 to 2
seats, 18 parties - 1 seat each, and 26 non-partisans also entered the
Senate.
Corruption
Mobutu Sese Seko, who ruled the DRC from
1965 to 1997, effectively institutionalized corruption, which led the
country to economic collapse in 1996. Mobutu is said to have embezzled
between US$4 and US$5 billion during his reign. In July 2009, a Swiss
court ruled that the statute of limitations for the return of Mobutu's
overseas assets (about US$6.7 million held in Swiss banks) had expired
and the assets should therefore be handed over to his family.
President Joseph Kabila, having come to power in 2001, created the
Commission to Combat Economic Crimes.
Human rights
The UN
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in 2006
expressed concern that in the post-war transition period, human rights
for women and respect for gender equality are not considered as a
priority goal. The east of the country, in particular, has been called
the "rape capital of the world" and the prevalence of sexual violence
has been rated as the highest in the world. The problem is exacerbated
by the fact that the general population seems to accept violence against
women as the norm. In July 2007, the International Committee of the Red
Cross expressed concern about the situation in the east of the DRC.
According to the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Yakin
Ertürk, who traveled to eastern Congo in July 2007, violence against
women in North and South Kivu has taken on a character of "unimaginable
brutality". “Armed groups attack local communities, rob, rape, kidnap
women and children and force them to work as sex slaves,” Erturk said.
In December 2008, GuardianFilms, owned by the British newspaper The
Guardian, released a documentary documenting the testimony of more than
400 women and girls who were abused by armed bands of marauders. In June
2010, Britain's Oxfam reported a sharp increase in the number of rapes
occurring in the DRC, and Harvard researchers found that the number of
rapes committed by civilians had increased seventeenfold. According to
the Thomson Reuters Foundation, which published the ranking of the most
dangerous countries for women in the world at the end of 2018, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo ranks seventh in the list of countries
with the greatest number of risks for women in terms of health care,
access to economic resources, ordinary life, sexual violence and
trafficking. people.
In 2003, Sinafasi Makelo, who represented
the Mbuti Pygmies, stated at the UN Indigenous Forum that during the
war, members of his people were hunted and eaten as if they were game.
In the province of North Kivu, cases of cannibalism were observed by a
group known as Les Effaceurs ("Erasers"), whose members wanted to clear
the land of people and use it for mining. Both sides of the war viewed
each other as "inferior", and some believed that eating human flesh gave
them magical powers.
Natural resources - the world's largest reserves of cobalt,
germanium, tantalum, diamonds, Africa's largest reserves of uranium,
tungsten, copper, zinc, tin, reserves of beryllium, lithium, niobium,
significant deposits of oil, coal, iron ores, manganese, gold, silver ,
bauxites. The leader in the supply of natural malachite. Large
hydropower resources, forests.
After the end of the civil wars,
the economic situation of the country began to improve from 2002. The
DRC authorities have resumed relations with international financial
organizations and with countries providing assistance. The recovery of
work in the mining sector, the main source of export earnings, led to an
increase in GDP in 2006-08. However, since the end of 2008, falling
demand and prices for the DRC's key export commodities have led to a new
stagnation in the country's economy.
GDP per capita, according to
the IMF, in 2017 is about $790 (185th in the world).
Industry -
mining (diamonds, gold, copper, cobalt, zinc), consumer products
(textiles, shoes, cigarettes, food products and drinks), timber.
Agriculture - coffee, sugar, palm oil, rubber, tea, quinine, cassava
(tapioca), bananas, root vegetables, corn, fruits; animal husbandry is
underdeveloped.
International trade
Exports ($8.3 billion in
2017) - copper, cobalt, diamonds, gold, timber, crude oil, coffee.
The main buyers of exports (in 2017): China - 39.7%, Belgium - 21.7%,
South Korea - 7.2%, Saudi Arabia - 7.1%.
Imports ($5.0 billion in
2017) - food, engineering products, vehicles, fuel.
The main import
suppliers (in 2017): China - 19.4%, South Africa - 9.9%, Zambia - 10.6%,
Belgium - 9%.
External debt - 5.324 billion dollars (in 2017).
Official statistics, however, miss the main point of Congo's foreign
trade - the shadow export of tantalum raw materials. Human rights
organizations and the international press are actively covering the
issue of illegal trade in tantalite from the Congo on the black market.
The world's largest electronics manufacturers, the mafia, and the
governments of countries neighboring the Congo are accused of being
involved in this. In 2003, The New York Times published publications
with accusations of involvement in the illegal import of raw materials
from the Congo to the Kazakhstani enterprise Kazatomprom. This issue was
also covered in the OKO newspaper (No. 114 of April 11, 2003). In 2002,
Belgian human rights organizations launched a social campaign “No blood
on my cell phone! Stop the war in the Congo! The problem of illegal
trade in tantalum raw materials is dedicated to the 2010 documentary
film "Blood on your mobile".
The country is distinguished by a significant ethno-cultural
diversity (more than 200 peoples and nationalities, 242 languages).
mass media
State television and radio company RTNC (Fr.
Radio-Télévision nationale congolaise "Congolese national radio and
television"); formerly OZRT (French Office zaïrois de radiodiffusion et
de télévision “Zairian Broadcasting and Television Authority”), includes
the TV channels RTNC 1 (broadcasts since 1976) and RTNC2 (broadcasts
since March 1999), the nationwide radio station RTNC Chaîne Nationale
and a network of regional radio stations (RTNC Chaîne Kinshasa and
others).
Sport
The most popular sport is football. In DR
Congo, the national team is quite strong by African standards. The most
successful period in the history of national football is the 1960s and
1970s, when the Zaire team won the African Cup of Nations twice (1968
and 1974), and in 1974, for the only time in its history, took part in
the World Cup in Germany, where, however, lost all three matches in the
group with a total score of 0-14 (including a record defeat 0:9 against
Yugoslavia). In the 1990s and 2000s, the DR Congo team regularly
participated in the African Cup of Nations, finishing third in 1998. The
best football players of DR Congo play for European clubs in the
championships of England, Germany, Belgium, France and other countries.
Among the country's strongest footballers in the 21st century, Shabani
Nonda, Dieumersi Mbokani, Youssouf Mulumba, Cedric Makyadi, Chancel
Mbemba can be noted.
A number of players who were born in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo or have roots from this country, having
moved to Europe, became citizens of the EU states, mainly France and
Belgium. Goalkeeper Steve Mandanda, midfielders Claude Makelele, Yann
M'Vila, Rio Mavyuba (his father played for Zaire at the 1974 World Cup),
forward Pegi Luyindyula have experience playing for the French national
team.
The DR Congo participates regularly in the Summer Olympics,
usually sending 5-10 athletes. Athletes from the DR Congo have not yet
managed to win medals at the Olympic Games.