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Portal:Democratic Republic of the Congo

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The Democratic Republic of the Congo Portal

Flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Coat of Arms of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Coat of Arms of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
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The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of 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 112 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, 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...)

Deforestation in the triple border of Angola, Congo and DRC. The dense moist forest in dark green is mostly at Angola's Cabinda enclave, from image center to upper left. In light green, deforestation, mostly along Chiloango River, crossing image NE to SW on Congo-DRC border, at image top, and Cabinda-DRC border below. Savanna-forest mosaic with extensive agriculture appears in orange and orangeish light green.

Deforestation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is an environmental conflict of international importance. Most of the deforestation takes place in the Congo Basin, which has the second largest rainforest in the world after the Amazon. Roughly half the remaining rainforest in the Congo Basin is in the DRC.

There are compounding causes underlying deforestation in the DRC. Trees are slashed and burned for agriculture in the country. Illegal logging, road development and city expansion are also among some of the causes for deforestation. (Full article...)

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Jean-Chrysostome Weregemere or Weregemere Bingwa Nyalumeke (born 5 September 1919) was a Congolese politician who led a faction of the Centre du Regroupement Africain. He served as Minister of Agriculture in the Congolese government from August 1961 until July 1962 and then as Minister of Justice until December 1962. Weregemere later held prominent positions in parastatals and sat on the central committee of the Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution from 1980 until 1985.

Weregemere was born in Kivu Province, Belgian Congo. After studying with various Catholic institutions and taking courses in medicine, he entered the workforce, but frequently ran afoul of the colonial authorities for engaging in political activities. In 1958 he cofounded the Centre du Regroupement Africain (CEREA), a political party. He successfully expanded its influence and became its secretary-general, but continued to face challenges from the Belgian administration. In early 1960 he accused the leadership of CEREA of communist sympathies and created a splinter party. In the Congo's first free elections later that year Weregemere won a seat in the Chamber of Deputies. In August 1961 he was appointed Minister of Agriculture. In July 1962 Prime Minister Cyrille Adoula reorganised his government and Weregemere was made Minister of Justice. The appointment was not well received by the public, and following attempts by the Adoula Government to arrest members of Parliament, Weregemere was removed from his office by a motion of censure in the Chamber in December. (Full article...)

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Tintin in the Congo (French: Tintin au Congo; French pronunciation: [tɛ̃tɛ̃ o kɔ̃go]) is the second volume of The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian comic strip artist Hergé. Commissioned by the conservative Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle for its children's supplement Le Petit Vingtième, it was serialised weekly from May 1930 to June 1931 before being published in a collected volume by Éditions de Petit Vingtième in 1931. The story tells of young Belgian reporter Tintin and his dog Snowy, who are sent to the Belgian Congo to report on events in the country. Amid various encounters with the native Congolese people and wild animals, Tintin unearths a criminal diamond smuggling operation run by the American gangster Al Capone.

Following on from Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and bolstered by publicity stunts, Tintin in the Congo was a commercial success within Belgium and was also serialised in France. Hergé continued The Adventures of Tintin with Tintin in America in 1932, and the series subsequently became a defining part of the Franco-Belgian comics tradition. In 1946, Hergé re-drew and coloured Tintin in the Congo in his distinctive ligne-claire style for republication by Casterman, with further alterations made at the request of his Scandinavian publisher for a 1975 edition. (Full article...)

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