Democratic Republic of the Congo

Democratic Republic of the Congo République démocratique du Congo (French)
Flag Emblem
Motto: "Justice – Paix – Travail" ("Justice – Peace – Work")
Anthem: "Debout Congolais" ("Arise, Congolese")
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Capital and largest city	Kinshasa 4°19′S 15°19′E / 4.317°S 15.317°E / -4.317; 15.317
Official languages	French
Recognised national languages	Kikongo ya leta[a] Lingala Swahili Tshiluba
Religion (2021)[1]	95.4% Christianity 2.6% traditional faiths 1.5% Islam 0.5% others / none
Demonym(s)	Congolese
Government	Unitary semi-presidential republic
• President	Félix Tshisekedi
• Prime Minister	Judith Suminwa
Legislature	Parliament
• Upper house	Senate
• Lower house	National Assembly
Formation
• Colonised	17 November 1879
• Congo Free State	1 July 1885
• Belgian Congo	15 November 1908
• Independence from Belgium	30 June 1960[2]
• Admitted to the United Nations	20 September 1960
• Democratic Republic	1 August 1964
• Republic of Zaire	27 October 1971
• First Congo War	17 May 1997
• Current constitution	18 February 2006
Area
• Total	2,345,409 km2 (905,567 sq mi) (11th)
• Water (%)	3.32
Population
• 2024 estimate	109,717,326[3] (15th)
• Density	48/km2 (124.3/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)	2024 estimate
• Total	$160.197 billion[4]
• Per capita	$1,552[4]
GDP (nominal)	2024 estimate
• Total	$73.761 billion[4]
• Per capita	$714[4]
Gini (2012)	42.1[5] medium inequality
HDI (2022)	0.481[6] low (180th)
Currency	Congolese franc (CDF)
Time zone	UTC+1 to +2 (WAT and CAT)
Date format	dd/mm/yyyy
Drives on	right
Calling code	+243
ISO 3166 code	CD
Internet TLD	.cd

DR Congo, officially the Democratic Republic of the Congo,^[b] also known as the DRC, Congo-Kinshasa or simply Congo, is a country in Central Africa. By land area, DR Congo is the second-largest country in Africa and the 11th-largest in the world. With a population of around 109 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most populous Francophone country in the world. The national capital and largest city is Kinshasa, which is also the economic center. The country is bordered by the Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania (across Lake Tanganyika), Zambia, Angola, the Cabinda exclave of Angola, and the South Atlantic Ocean.

Centered on the Congo Basin, 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 3000 to 2000 years ago.^[7] In the west, the Kingdom of Kongo ruled around the mouth of the Congo River from the 14th to 19th centuries. In the center and east, the empires of Mwene Muji, Luba, and Lunda ruled from the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. King Leopold II of Belgium formally acquired rights to the Congo territory from the colonial nations of Europe in 1885 and declared the land his private property, naming it the Congo Free State. From 1885 to 1908, his colonial military forced the local population to produce rubber and committed widespread atrocities. In 1908, Leopold ceded the territory, which thus became a Belgian colony.

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.^[2] 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 and the assassination of President Laurent-Désiré Kabila.^{[8][9][10][11]} The war ended under President Joseph Kabila, who governed the country from 2001 to 2019 and 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.^[12]

Following the 2018 general election, in the country's first peaceful transition of power since independence, Kabila was succeeded as president in a highly contentious election won by Félix Tshisekedi, who has served as president since.^[13] Since 2015, eastern Congo has been the site of an ongoing military conflict.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is extremely rich in natural resources but 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.^[14] Besides the capital Kinshasa, the two next largest cities, Lubumbashi and Mbuji-Mayi, are both mining communities. The DRC's largest export is raw minerals, with China accepting over 50% of its exports in 2019.^[2] In 2021, DR Congo's level of human development was ranked 179th out of 191 countries by the Human Development Index^[15] and is classed as a least developed country by the UN. As of 2018^[update], following two decades of various civil wars and continued internal conflicts, around 600,000 Congolese refugees were still living in neighbouring countries.^[16] Two million children risk starvation, and the fighting has displaced 4.5 million people.^[17] 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.

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