Welcome to Democratic Republic of the Congo!
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (French: République Démocratique du Congo or RDC, often shortened to DRC or D.R. Congo) is the largest and most populous country in Central Africa, as well as the largest French speaking country in the world in terms of population. The DRC remains a destination for only the most seasoned, hardcore African traveller. It is not a country for the casual tourist: the average backpacker, holidaymaker, and especially those seeking luxury safaris or organized cultural experiences. Largely covered by lush, tropical rainforest, the heart of the DRC is comparable to the Amazon (the only larger rainforest on Earth). The mighty Congo River forms the backbone of the country, carrying barges overflowing with Congolese (and the occasional adventurous European) and merchants bringing their large pirogues laden with goods, fruit, and local bushmeat out to sell to those on the barges.
The country has a plethora of natural resources, and they're estimated to be worth in excess of US$24 trillion. The country could become far wealthier than present, but remains one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world, largely due to pervasive political instability, corruption and warfare.
The country was plundered brutally by Belgium during the Scramble for Africa, and millions of Congolese (including children) were tortured, raped and murdered. The scars of colonisation are still felt to this day, and relations with Belgium continue to remain unhealthy over it.
Weeks after attaining independence in 1960, the country fell apart, and its leaders have since been far more preoccupied with quelling rebels and keeping the country together than building infrastructure, improving education and healthcare, or doing anything else to improve the lives of the Congolese, many of whom live in poverty. Between 1994 and 2003, the bloodiest conflict since the end of World War II played out in the country's eastern jungles, with sporadic violence ongoing ever since. Millions of people have been displaced, fleeing mass murder and mass rape, and hundreds of thousands remain in refugee camps to this day, sheltered by the largest UN peacekeeping mission (MONUC) in the world.
Those who do brave the elements to travel here are in for quite the adventure. In the east, volcanic peaks rise thousands of meters above the surrounding rainforest, often shrouded in mist. Hikers can climb up Mount Nyiragongo, looming above Goma, and spend the night on the rim above an active lava lake (one of just four worldwide!). In the jungles nearby, a small number of tourists each day are permitted to trek to families of gorillas—one of our species' closest living relatives. Along the mighty Congo River, a handful of travellers each year spend weeks floating hundreds of kilometres on barges loaded with cargo and Congolese. And don't forget to pick up masks and other handicrafts in lively markets across the country.
This country is also frequently called Congo-Kinshasa to distinguish it from its northwestern neighbor, the Republic of Congo (also known as "Congo-Brazzaville"). In the past, the DRC has been known as the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Congo-Leopoldville, or Zaire. On this and other guides within the DRC, "Congo" refers to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (French: République démocratique du Congo or RDC), also known as Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly Zaire, is a country in Central Africa. It is, by area, the largest country in sub-Saharan Africa, the second-largest in all of Africa (after Algeria), and the 11th-largest in the world. With a population of around 92 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most populous officially Francophone country in the world, as well as the fourth-most populous country in Africa (after Nigeria, Ethiopia and Egypt) and the 15th-most populous country in the world. It is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, African Union, and COMESA. Since 2015, the Eastern DR Congo has been the site of an ongoing military conflict in Kivu. The capital and largest city is Kinshasa.
Centered on the Congo Basin, the territory of the DRC was first inhabited by Central African foragers around 90,000 years ago and was reached by the Bantu expansion about 3,000 years ago. In the west, the Kingdom of Kongo ruled around the mouth of the Congo River from the 14th to 19th centuries. In the northeast, center and east, the kingdoms of Azande, Luba and Lunda ruled from the 16th and 17th centuries to the 19th century.
In the 1870s, just before the onset of the Scramble for Africa, European exploration of the Congo Basin was carried out, first led by Henry Morton Stanley under the sponsorship of Leopold II of Belgium. Leopold formally acquired rights to the Congo territory at the Berlin Conference in 1885 and declared the land his private property, naming it the Congo Free State. During the Free State, his colonial military unit, the Force Publique, forced the local population to produce rubber. From 1885 to 1908, millions of Congolese people died as a consequence of disease and exploitation. In 1908, Leopold, despite his initial reluctance, ceded to Belgium the so-called Free State, which thus became known as the Belgian Congo.
Congo achieved independence from Belgium on 30 June 1960 under the name Republic of the Congo. Congolese nationalist Patrice Lumumba was elected the first Prime Minister, while Joseph Kasa-Vubu became the first President. During the Congo Crisis, Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, who later renamed himself Mobutu Sese Seko, officially came into power through a coup d'état and renamed the country Zaire in 1971. The country was run as a dictatorial one-party state, with his Popular Movement of the Revolution as the sole legal party. By the early 1990s, Mobutu's government began to weaken. Destabilisation in the east resulting from the 1994 Rwandan genocide led to a 1996 invasion led by Rwanda, which led to Mobutu's ousting in the First Congo War the following year.Laurent-Désiré Kabila then became the new president, reverting the country's name to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Tensions between President Kabila and the Rwandan and Tutsi presence in the country led to the Second Congo War from 1998 to 2003. Ultimately, nine African countries and around twenty armed groups became involved in the war, which resulted in the deaths of 5.4 million people. The two wars devastated the country. Kabila was assassinated by one of his bodyguards on 16 January 2001 and was succeeded eight days later by his son Joseph, 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 according to NGOs. 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.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 with little widespread development. 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. In 2019, DR Congo's level of human development was ranked 175th out of 189 countries by the Human Development Index. As of 2018, around 600,000 Congolese have fled to neighbouring countries from conflicts in the centre and east of the DRC. Two million children risk starvation, and the fighting has displaced 4.5 million people.