Republic of the Congo, country situated astride the Equator in west-central Africa. Officially known as the Republic of the Congo, the country is often called Congo (Brazzaville), with its capital added parenthetically, to distinguish it from neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is often referred to by its acronym, the DRC, or called Congo (Kinshasa).
The region was dominated by Bantu-speaking tribes at least 3,000 years ago, who built trade links leading into the Congo River basin. Congo was formerly part of the French colony of Equatorial Africa. The Republic of the Congo was established on 28 November 1958 and gained independence from France in 1960.
The Republic of the Congo capital city, Brazzaville, is located on the Congo River opposite DR Congo’s capital city, Kinshasa. The two cities are less than a mile (1.6km) apart, making them the closest capital cities in the world. Rome and Vatican City are closer, but as Vatican City is a city-state, it technically doesn’t have a capital. Additionally, it is not a UN member state.
Congo is bounded to the northwest by Cameroon, to the north by the Central African Republic, to the east and south by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the southwest by the Angolan exclave of Cabinda, and to the west by Gabon. South of its border with Gabon, the country also has a 100-mile- (160-km-) long coastline along the Atlantic Ocean.
The Republic of the Congo was Africa’s first Marxist state. Following a 1968 military coup, the country was renamed the People’s Republic of the Congo ushering in Africa’s first Marxist-Leninist state (Angola and Ethiopia would later follow). Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the country’s previous name was restored and the country held its first democratic election in 1992. In 1993, fighting broke out in the Republic of the Congo, followed by a full-scale civil war in 1997 between political rivalries. Angolan troops were involved until peace was eventually brokered in the early 2000s.
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Oil is the mainstay of the economy. In recent years the country has tried to increase financial transparency in the sector. Covered mainly by tropical forests, the Republic of Congo, is home to one of the largest areas of tropical peatlands, a fragile ecosystem that plays a crucial role in climate regulation. The oil sector accounts for about half of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and 80% of its exports, ranking it as the third largest producer in Sub Saharan Africa. The country also has a wealth of mineral resources that remain largely untapped.
The Republic of the Congo has one UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Sangha Trinational. Located where the country meets Cameroon and the Central African Republic, the site includes the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of the Congo and features a broad range of tropical forest ecosystems rich in flora and fauna such as Nile crocodiles, goliath tigerfish, elephants, western lowland gorillas and chimpanzees.
The Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), located in Central Africa, covers 342,000 km2. Its population of 5.7 million people is largely young, with 47% being under age 18. More than half of the population lives in its two main cities — Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire. The country is one of the least densely populated in Africa, with 14.8 inhabitants per square kilometer.
Between 1921 and 1934, the French forced Congolese labourers to build the Congo-Ocean Railway from Pointe-Noire to Brazzaville. The construction project caused between 15,000 and 20,000 Africans dead and is considered the costliest ever in terms of African lives.
The country’s tropical climate is characterized by heavy precipitation and high temperatures and humidity. The Equator crosses the country just north of Liranga. In the north a dry season extends from November through March and a rainy season from April through October, whereas in the south the reverse is true. On both sides of the Equator, however, local climates exist with two dry and two wet seasons.
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