Common knowledge of Democratic Republic of the Congo formerly Zaïre   Democratic Republic of the Congo  President: Joseph Kabila (2001) Area: 905,563 sq mi (2,345,410 sq km) Population (2003 est.): 56,625,039 (growth rate: 3.0%); birth rate: 45.1/1000; infant mortality rate: 96.6/1000; density per sq mi: 63 Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Kinshasa, 6,541,300 Other large cities: Lubumbashi, 1,105,900; Mbuji-Mayi, 938,000; Kolwezi, 832,400; Kisangani, 523,000 Monetary unit: Congolese franc Languages: French (official), Swahili, Lingala, Ishiluba, and Kikongo, others Ethnicity/race: over 200 African ethnic groups, the majority are Bantu; the four largest tribes—Mongo, Luba, Kongo (all Bantu), and the Mangbetu-Azande (Hamitic)—make up about 45% of the population Religions: Roman Catholic 50%, Protestant 20%, Kimbanguist 10%, Islam 10%; syncretic and traditional, 10% Literacy rate: 77.3% (1995 est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2001 est.): $32 billion; per capita $590. Real growth rate: –4%. Inflation: 358%. Unemployment: n.a. Arable land: 3%. Agriculture: coffee, sugar, palm oil, rubber, tea, quinine, cassava (tapioca), palm oil, bananas, root crops, corn, fruits; wood products. Labor force: 14.51 million (1993 est.); agriculture 65%, industry 16%, services 19% (1991 est.). Industries: mining (diamonds, copper, zinc), mineral processing, consumer products (including textiles, footwear, cigarettes, processed foods and beverages), cement. Natural resources: cobalt, copper, cadmium, petroleum, industrial and gem diamonds, gold, silver, zinc, manganese, tin, germanium, uranium, radium, bauxite, iron ore, coal, hydropower, timber. Exports: $750 million (f.o.b., 2001 est.): diamonds, copper, coffee, cobalt, crude oil. Imports: $1.024 billion (f.o.b., 2001 est.): foodstuffs, mining and other machinery, transport equipment, fuels. Major trading partners: Benelux, U.S., South Africa, Finland, Italy, Nigeria, Kenya, China. Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 21,000 (1997); mobile cellular: 15,000 (2000). Radio broadcast stations: AM 3, FM 11, shortwave 2 (2001). Radios: 18.03 million (1997). Television broadcast stations: 4 (2001). Televisions: 6.478 million (1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 2 (2000). Internet users: 1,500 (1999). Transportation: Railways: total: 5,138 km (2000 est.); note: severely reduced route-distance in use because of damage to facilities by civil strife. Highways: total: 157,000 km; paved: n.a. (including 30 km of expressways); unpaved: n.a. (1996). Waterways: 15,000 km including the Congo, its tributaries, and unconnected lakes. Ports and harbors: Banana, Boma, Bukavu, Bumba, Goma, Kalemie, Kindu, Kinshasa, Kisangani, Matadi, Mbandaka. Airports: 232 (2001). International disputes: Democratic Republic of the Congo is in the grip of a civil war that has drawn in military forces from neighboring states, with Uganda and Rwanda supporting the rebel movements that occupy much of the eastern portion of the state; Tutsi, Hutu, and other conflicting ethnic groups, political rebels, and various government forces continue fighting in Great Lakes region, transcending the boundaries of Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda; most of the Congo River boundary with the Republic of the Congo is indefinite (no agreement has been reached on the division of the river or its islands, except in the Pool Malebo/Stanley Pool area). Geography The Congo, in west-central Africa, is bordered by the Congo Republic, the Central African Republic, the Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Angola, and the Atlantic Ocean. It is one-quarter the size of the U.S. The principal rivers are the Ubangi and Bomu in the north and the Congo in the west, which flows into the Atlantic. The entire length of Lake Tanganyika lies along the eastern border with Tanzania and Burundi. Government Dictatorship. History Formerly the Belgian Congo, this territory was inhabited by ancient Negrito peoples (Pygmies), who were pushed into the mountains by Bantu and Nilotic invaders. The American correspondent Henry M. Stanley navigated the Congo River in 1877 and opened the interior to exploration. Commissioned by King Leopold II of the Belgians, Stanley made treaties with native chiefs that enabled the king to obtain personal title to the territory at the Berlin Conference of 1885. Leopold accumulated a vast personal fortune from ivory and rubber through Congolese slave labor; 10 million people are estimated to have died from forced labor, starvation, and outright extermination during Leopold's colonial rule. His brutal exploitation of the Congo eventually became an international cause célèbre, prompting Belgium to take over administration of the Congo, which remained a colony until agitation for independence forced Brussels to grant freedom on June 30, 1960. In elections that month, two prominent nationalists won: Patrice Lumumba of the leftist Mouvement National Congolais became prime minister and Joseph Kasavubu of the ABAKO party became head of state. But within weeks of independence, the Katanga Province, led by Moise Tshombe, seceded from the new republic, and another mining province, South Kasai, followed. Belgium sent paratroopers to quell the civil war, and with Kasavubu and Lumumba of the national government in conflict, the United Nations flew in a peacekeeping force. Kasavubu staged an army coup in 1960 and handed Lumumba over to the Katangan forces. A UN investigating commission found that Lumumba had been killed by a Belgian mercenary in the presence of Tshombe, who was then the president of Katanga. U.S. and Belgian involvement in the assassination have been alleged. Dag Hammarskjold, UN secretary-general, died in a plane crash en route to a peace conference with Tshombe on Sept. 17, 1961. Tshombe rejected a national reconciliation plan submitted by the UN in 1962. Tshombe's troops fired on the UN force in Dec., and in the ensuing conflict Tshombe capitulated on Jan. 14, 1963. The peacekeeping force withdrew, and, in a complete about-face, Kasavubu named Tshombe premier in order to fight a spreading rebellion. Tshombe used foreign mercenaries, and with the help of Belgian paratroops airlifted by U.S. planes, defeated the most serious opposition, a Communist-backed regime in the northeast. Kasavubu abruptly dismissed Tshombe in 1965, but was then himself ousted by Gen. Joseph-Desiré Mobutu, army chief of staff. The new president nationalized the Union Minière, the Belgian copper mining enterprise that had been a dominant force in the Congo since colonial days. Mobutu eliminated opposition to win the election in 1970. In 1975, he nationalized much of the economy, barred religious instruction in schools, and decreed the adoption of African names. He changed the country's name to Zaire and his own to Mobuto Sese Seko, which means “the all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, will go from conquest to conquest leaving fire in his wake.” In 1977, invaders from Angola calling themselves the Congolese National Liberation Front pushed into Shaba and threatened the important mining center of Kolwezi. France and Belgium provided military aid to defeat the rebels. Laurent Kabila and his long-standing but little-known guerrilla movement launched a seven-month campaign that ousted Mobutu in May 1997, ending one of the world's most corrupt and megalomaniacal regimes. The last of the CIA-nurtured cold war despots, Mobutu deftly courted France and the U.S., which used Zaire as a launching pad for covert operations against bordering countries, particularly Marxist Angola. Mobutu's disastrous policies drove his country to economic collapse while he siphoned off millions of dollars for himself. Mobutu fled in exile to Morocco on May 16, 1997, where he died of cancer in September. The country was renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo, its name before Mobutu changed it to Zaire in 1971. But elation over Mobutu's downfall faded as Kabila's own autocratic style emerged, and he seemed devoid of a clear plan for reconstructing the country. He stymied UN human rights investigations and continued to depend on foreign troops for border skirmishes rather than establish a strong national army. Many Congolese dismissed him as a puppet ruler who allowed his country to be overrun by outsiders, particularly the Rwandans. At the same time, he alienated many of his former supporters who helped him establish power, including Rwanda and Uganda. In Aug. 1998, Congolese rebel forces, led by ethnic Tutsi in eastern Congo who were backed by Rwanda and Uganda, began attacking Kabila's forces. The rebels gained control of a large portion of the country until Angolan, Namibian, and Zimbabwean troops came to Kabila's aid and pushed the rebels back. In 1999, the Lusaka Accord was signed by all six of the countries involved, as well as by most, but not all, of the various rebel groups. In Jan. 2001, Kabila was assassinated, allegedly by one of his bodyguards. His young and inexperienced son Joseph became the new president, and demonstrated a willingness to engage in talks to end the civil war. In April 2002, the government agreed to a power-sharing arrangement with Ugandan-supported rebels, and in July, the presidents of the Congo and Rwanda signed an accord: Rwanda promised to withdraw its 35,000 troops from the eastern Congolese border; the Congo would in turn disarm the thousands of Hutu militiamen in its territory, who threatened Rwandan security—many of them supported or participated in the 1994 genocide against Rwandan Tutsis. In Sept. 2002, Uganda also signed a peace accord with the nation. But the warring parties were slow to depart; most had been looting the Congo of its natural resources and had little incentive to end the war. More than 2.5 million people are estimated to have died in the Congo's complex four-year civil war, which has involved 7 foreign armies and numerous rebel groups that often fought among themselves. Despite the peace agreement and power-sharing plan signed between the main parties in the four-year Congolese war, the fighting and killing continued into 2003. In April 2003, hundreds of civilians were massacred in the eastern province of Ituri in an ethnic conflict. In June a French force with a UN mandate was deployed to defend the population from further tribal fighting. Joseph Kabila signed a new constitution in April, and on July 17, 2003, Congo's new power-sharing government was inaugurated. The new government includes 4 vice presidents and 36 ministers, 16 of which are former rebels. See also Encyclopedia: Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire). Back to Homepage