Democratic Republic of the Congo

Democratic Republic of the Congo, country located in central Africa. The country has a 25-mile (40-km) coastline on the Atlantic Ocean but is otherwise landlocked and borders nine other African nations.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has a population of around 112 million, thereby making it the most populous Francophone country in the world and by its land area it is the second-largest country in Africa and the 11th-largest in the world. More than 200 African ethnic groups of which the majority are Bantu; the four largest groups – Mongo, Luba, Kongo (all Bantu), and the Mangbetu-Azande (Hamitic) – make up about 45% of the population. The main languages in DRC are French (official), Lingala (a lingua franca trade language), Kingwana (a dialect of Kiswahili or Swahili), Kikongo, Tshiluba.

The DR Congo’s history began as a king’s private domain also known as the Congo Free State which evolved into a colony (the Belgian Congo), became independent in 1960 (as the Republic of the Congo), and later underwent several name changes (to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then to Zaire, and back again to the Democratic Republic of the Congo). They said, Congo is the product of a complex pattern of historical forces. However, some are traceable to the precolonial past, others to the era of colonial rule, and others still to the political convulsions that followed in the wake of independence. All, in one way or another, have left their imprint on Congolese societies.

However, before experiencing radical transformations in the colonial era, Congolese societies had already experienced major disruptions. From the 15th to the 17th century several important state systems evolved in the southern savanna region. The most important were the Kongo kingdom in the west and the Luba-Lunda states in the east. They developed elaborate political institutions, buttressed by symbolic kingship and military force. Power emanated from the capital to outlying areas through appointed chiefs or local clan heads. Competition for the kingship often led to civil strife, however, and, with the rise of the slave trade, new sources of instability influenced regional politics. The history of the Kongo peoples in the 16th century, for example, is largely the story of how the Atlantic slave trade created powerful vested interests among provincial chiefs, which over time undermined the kingdom’s capacity to resist encroachments by its neighbours. By the late 16th century, the kingdom had all but succumbed to the attacks of the Imbangala (referred to as Jaga in contemporary sources), bands of fighters fleeing famine and drought in the east. Two centuries later fragmentation also undermined political institutions among the Lunda and the Luba, followed by attacks from interlopers eager to control trade in slaves and ivory.

The Congo 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. According to the World Bank, DRC is endowed with exceptional natural resources, including minerals such as cobalt and copper, hydropower potential, significant arable land, immense biodiversity, and the world’s second-largest rainforest. Most people in DRC have not benefited from this wealth. A long history of conflict, political upheaval and instability, and authoritarian rule have led to a grave, ongoing humanitarian crisis. In addition, there has been forced displacement of populations. These features have not changed significantly since the end of the Congo Wars in 2003. DRC is among the five poorest nations in the world.  An estimated 74.6% of Congolese people lived on less than $2.15 a day in 2023.  About one out of six people living in extreme poverty in SSA lives in DRC. Besides the capital Kinshasa, the two next largest cities, Lubumbashi and Mbuji-Mayi, are both mining communities. The Central Africa country’s largest export is raw minerals, with China accepting over 50% of its exports in 2019.

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. The war ended under President Joseph Kabila, who governed the country from 2001 to 2019, 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 by Félix Tshisekedi, who has served as president since. Since 2015, the Eastern DR Congo has been the site of an ongoing military conflict in Kivu.

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Key Facts:

• Ethnologue lists 215 living languages spoken in the country. French is the official language of the country. Kituba, Swahili, Tshiluba, and Lingala are the country’s four national languages.
• The country has, and has had several names. It is known as Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, DROC, DRC, simply Congo and Zaïre from 1971 to 1997. It is situated at the heart of Africa, and lies on the Equator, covering an area of 2,345,095 km². The capital, Kinshasa, is located on the Congo River about 320 miles (515 km) from its mouth.
•  The Democratic Republic of theCongo (DRC) holds the potential to light up a significant portion of Africa. The Congo River, the continent’s largest by volume and its most powerful, passes through ten countries before emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. Carpeted by huge swaths of rainforest and punctuated by gushing rivers and smoking volcanoes, the Democratic Republic of Congo is the ultimate African adventure with a surface area equivalent to that of Western Europe.
• The DRC contains half of Africa’s tropical forest and the second largest continuous tropical forest in the world. Because of unrest and economic instability, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has mostly escaped the industrial-scale deforestation that has taken place in other tropical countries such as Brazil and Indonesia.
• The Democratic Republic of theCongo (DRC) is a country of paradoxes, it is a land rich in natural resources, but its people are among the poorest in the world. The country is also severely lacking in infrastructure and political stability, and is deeply corrupt. While its poverty rate has fallen slightly over the past two decades, particularly in rural areas, the DRC nonetheless remains one of the poorest countries in the world.
• DRC has suffered over two decades of violence and a war involving numerous other African nations resulting in more than 5 million deaths.
• The Democratic Republic of Congo faces ongoing health and human rights challenges due to civil unrest and armed conflict. DRC is a major source of displaced people while also hosting several refugees from neighboring countries. The DRC currently hosts more than half a million refugees and five million internally displaced people (IDPs) – the largest IDP population in Africa.
• The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) education system is plagued by low coverage and poor quality. 3.5 million children of primary school age are not in school, and of those who do attend, 44 percent start school late, after the age of six. National data indicate that only 67 percent of children who enter first grade will complete sixth grade.
• DRC boasts one of the highest rates of institutional deliveries in sub-Saharan Africa (80%), with eight out of every ten births also assisted by a skilled provider. However, the maternal and neonatal mortality are still among the highest in the world, which demonstrates the poor in-facility quality of maternal and newborn care.
• The Democratic Republic of the Congo has the second largest number of malaria cases and deaths globally (11% of all cases and 11% of deaths worldwide). Highest number of malaria cases in Central Africa (55% of all malaria cases in Central Africa). The current outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) started in August 2018, and there have been a number of extraordinary firsts and successes.

Updated on 26, April 2024.