Portal:Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo Portal

P:DRC

Flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo	Coat of Arms of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo, is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is the second-largest country in Africa and the 11th-largest in the world. With a population of around 115 million, the DR Congo is the most populous nominally Francophone country in the world. French is the official and most widely spoken language, though there are over 200 indigenous languages. The national capital and largest city is Kinshasa, which is also the economic center. The country is bordered by the Republic of the Congo, the Cabinda exclave of Angola, and the South Atlantic Ocean to the west; the Central African Republic and South Sudan to the north; Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania (across Lake Tanganyika) to the east; and Zambia and Angola to the south. Centered on the Congo Basin, most of the country's terrain is covered by dense rainforests and crossed by many rivers, while the east and southeast are mountainous.

The territory of the Congo was first inhabited by Central African foragers around 90,000 years ago and was settled in the Bantu expansion about 2,000 to 3,000 years ago. In the west, the Kingdom of Kongo ruled around the mouth of the Congo River from the 14th to the 19th century. In the center and east, the empires of Mwene Muji, Luba, and Lunda ruled between the 15th and 19th centuries. These kingdoms were broken up by Europeans during the colonization of the Congo Basin. King Leopold II of Belgium acquired rights to the Congo territory in 1885 and called it the Congo Free State. In 1908, Leopold ceded the territory after international pressure in response to widespread atrocities, and it became a Belgian colony. Congo achieved independence from Belgium in 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 1965. Mobutu renamed the country Zaire in 1971 and imposed a personalist dictatorship.

Instability caused by the influx of refugees from the Rwandan Civil War into the eastern part of the country led to the First 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 the Second Congo War from 1998 to 2003, which resulted in the deaths of 5.4 million people and the assassination of President Laurent-Désiré Kabila. The war, widely described as the deadliest conflict since World War II, ended under President Joseph 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 as forced disappearances, torture, arbitrary imprisonment and restrictions on civil liberties. Kabila stepped down in 2019, the country's first peaceful transition of power since independence, after Félix Tshisekedi won the highly contentious 2018 general election. Since the early 2000s, there have been over 100 armed groups active in the DRC, mainly concentrated in the Kivu region. One of its largest cities, Goma, was occupied by the March 23 Movement (M23) rebels briefly in 2012 and again in 2025. The M23 uprising escalated in early 2025 after the capture of multiple cities in the east, including with military support from Rwanda, which has caused a conflict between the two countries.

Despite being incredibly rich in natural resources, the DRC is one of the poorest countries in the world, having suffered from political instability, a lack of infrastructure, rampant corruption, and 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 and Mbuji-Mayi, are both mining communities. The DRC's largest exports are raw minerals and metal, which accounted for 80% of exports in 2023, with China being its largest trade partner. In 2024, DR Congo's level of human development was ranked 180th out of 193 countries by the Human Development Index and it is classified as being one of the least developed countries by the United Nations (UN). As of 2022^[update], following two decades of various civil wars and continued 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, and Economic Community of Central African States. (Full article...)

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LuaLua playing for Kardemir Karabükspor in 2013

Trésor Lomana LuaLua (/ˈtrɛzɔːr ləˈmɑːnə luˌɑːluˈɑː/; born 28 December 1980) is a Congolese former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is currently the attacking coach for Spalding United.

LuaLua was born in Kinshasa, but moved to England at a young age. After impressing in a college football match, he signed for Colchester United. There he scored a total of 21 goals in 68 appearances, which prompted Newcastle United to sign him. However, the competition for places meant he was less of a regular in the first team, and after four seasons and 88 appearances he transferred to Portsmouth, where he had previously been on loan for three months from Newcastle. He remained there for three seasons, but his spell was marred by disciplinary problems and malaria. After leaving Portsmouth, he moved teams frequently, representing sides in Greece, Qatar, Cyprus and Turkey, in addition to a brief return to English football at Blackpool. LuaLua received his first of 31 international caps in 2002, and scored seven goals in an eleven-year international career. He represented his national team at four Africa Cup of Nations tournaments. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various Democratic Republic of the Congo-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1DR Congo's Human Development Index scores, 1970–2010 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 2Force Publique soldiers in the Belgian Congo in 1918. At its peak, the Force Publique had around 19,000 Congolese soldiers, led by 420 Belgian officers. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 3Children mutilated during King Leopold II's rule (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 4Memory Board (lukasa) - Luba Kingdom (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 5Kasaï-Central province, where the Kamwina Nsapu militia clashes with security forces began. (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 6The Matadi railway station, part of the Matadi–Kinshasa Railway (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 7The leader of ABAKO, Joseph Kasa-Vubu, first democratically elected President of Congo-Léopoldville (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 8Patrice Lumumba, first democratically elected Prime Minister of the Congo-Léopoldville, was murdered by Belgian-supported Katangan separatists in 1961. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 9Democratic Republic of the Congo's population between 1960 and 2017 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 10Map of the Kingdom of Kongo (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 11The four Bantu languages with elevated "national" status (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 12The endangered mountain gorilla; half of its population live in the DRC's Virunga National Park, making the park a critical habitat for these animals. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 13Democratic Republic of the Congo map of Köppen climate classification (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 14Roman Catholic Church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 15The Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral, Lubumbashi (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 16Lake Kivu in North Kivu province (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 17Arab slave raid on Nyangwe, c. 1870 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 18People fleeing their villages due to fighting between FARDC and rebel groups, North Kivu, 2012 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 19Abeti Masikini in 1978 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 20The map of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 21Mobutu with the Dutch Prince Bernhard in Kinshasa in 1973 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 22A Congolese Christian. (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 23Refugees in the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 24Our Lady of Peace Cathedral in Bukavu (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 25Breakdown of the largest ethnic groups in DRC (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 26A classroom in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 27Ndeemba Mask (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 28Belligerents of the Second Congo War (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 29Mobutu Sese Seko (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 30Found in the Congolian rainforests, the okapi was unknown to science until 1901. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 31Congolese soldiers being trained by UN personnel (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 32View of Leopoldville Station and Port in 1884 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 33Mobutu Sese Seko and Richard Nixon in Washington, D.C., 1973 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 34Development of life expectancy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 35A Hemba male statue (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 36Change in per capita GDP of Congo, 1950–2018. Figures are inflation-adjusted to 2011 international dollars. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 37Masque féminin Ngaady a mwaash, XIX-XXe siècles (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 38President Félix Tshisekedi with the president of neighbouring Republic of the Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso in 2020; both wear face masks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 39Franco Luambo and his OK Jazz orchestra performing live at Zaire 74 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 40A woman carrying bananas. (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 41Map of the transport network in the DRC, including major rail, road, and water routes (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 42Flag of CNDP (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 43President Joseph Kabila with U.S. President Barack Obama in August 2014 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 44Ugandan President Idi Amin Visits Zaire and Meets Mobutu during The Shaba I Conflict (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 45A group of demobilized child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 46A mining site in the Haut-Katanga Province (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 47Rough diamonds ≈1 to 1.5 mm in size from the DR Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 48Patrice Lumumba, founding member and leader of the MNC (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 49Government troops near Goma during the M23 rebellion in May 2013 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 50A map of the major Bantu languages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 51Section of National Road 1 between Boma and Moanda, Kongo Central (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 52Brahmanist worshippers in Kinshasa (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 53Population fleeing their villages due to fighting between FARDC and rebels groups, Sake North Kivu 30 April 2012 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 54Ituri Rainforest (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 55Congo Free State official Camille Coquilhat with the Bangala chief Mata-Buiké, c. 1888 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 561908 photograph of a married Christian couple (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)

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The Free Republic of the Congo (French: République Libre du Congo), often referred to as Congo-Stanleyville, was a short-lived rival government to the Republic of the Congo (Congo-Léopoldville) based in the eastern Congo and led by Antoine Gizenga.

Following Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba's deposition in September 1960 in the midst of the Congo Crisis, many of his supporters became disillusioned with the government in Léopoldville (modern-day Kinshasa). Under Lumumba's deputy, Antoine Gizenga, leftists organised in Stanleyville (modern-day Kisangani) and in December declared their own government to be the legal successor to the prime minister's administration. Gizenga quickly amassed military strength and, by February 1961, had occupied vast portions of Congolese territory. In August, negotiations between the two governments resulted in Gizenga agreeing to stand down. He returned to the office of deputy under the new prime minister, Cyrille Adoula. Still, Gizenga distanced himself from the central administration and rebuilt his own political and military power. The rival government was not fully reintegrated into the Republic of the Congo until Gizenga was arrested in January 1962. (Full article...)

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Lihau c. 1990

Marcel Antoine Lihau or Ebua Libana la Molengo Lihau (29 September 1931 – 9 April 1999) was a Congolese jurist, law professor and politician who served as the inaugural First President of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Congo from 1968 until 1975, and was involved in the creation of two constitutions for the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Lihau attended the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium with the help of sympathetic Jesuit educators, becoming one of the first Congolese to study law. While there he encouraged Congolese politicians to form an alliance that allowed them to secure the independence of the Congo from Belgium. He served briefly as a justice official and negotiator for the Congolese central government before being appointed to lead a commission to draft a permanent national constitution. He was made dean of law faculty at Lovanium University in 1963. The following year he helped deliver the Luluabourg Constitution to the Congolese, which was adopted by referendum. (Full article...)