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<\/a>Centered on the Congo Basin, the territory of the DRC was first inhabited by Central African foragers<\/a> around 90,000 years ago and was reached by the Bantu expansion<\/a> about 3,000 years ago. In the west, the Kingdom of Kongo<\/a> ruled around the mouth of the Congo River<\/a> from the 14th to 19th centuries. In the center and east, the kingdoms of Luba<\/a> and Lunda<\/a> ruled from the 16th and 17th centuries to the 19th century.<\/p>\n In the 1870s, just before the onset of the Scramble for Africa<\/a>, European exploration of the Congo Basin was carried out, first led by Henry Morton Stanley<\/a> under the sponsorship of Leopold II of Belgium<\/a>. Leopold formally acquired rights to the Congo territory at the Berlin Conference<\/a> in 1885 and made the land his private property, naming it the Congo Free State<\/a>. During the Free State, his colonial military unit, the Force Publique<\/a>, forced the local population to produce rubber. From 1885 to 1908, millions of the Kongo people died as a consequence of disease and exploitation. In 1908, Belgium<\/a>, despite initial reluctance, formally annexed the Free State, which became known as the Belgian Congo<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Belgian Congo achieved independence on 30 June 1960 under the name Republic of the Congo<\/a>. Congolese nationalist Patrice Lumumba<\/a> was elected the first Prime Minister, while Joseph Kasa-Vubu<\/a> became the first President. Conflict arose over the administration of the territory, which became known as the Congo Crisis<\/a>. The provinces of Katanga<\/a>, under Mo\u00efse Tshombe<\/a>, and South Kasai<\/a> attempted to secede. After Lumumba turned to the Soviet Union for assistance in the crisis, the U.S. and Belgium became wary and oversaw his removal from office by Kasa-Vubu on 5 September and ultimate execution by Belgian-led Katangese troops on 17 January 1961. On 25 November 1965, Army Chief of Staff Joseph-D\u00e9sir\u00e9 Mobutu, who later renamed himself Mobutu Sese Seko<\/a>, officially came into power through a coup d’\u00e9tat. In 1971, he renamed the country Zaire. The country was run as a dictatorial one-party state, with his Popular Movement of the Revolution<\/a> as the sole legal party. Mobutu’s government received considerable support from the United States, due to its anti-communist stance during the Cold War. By the early 1990s, Mobutu’s government began to weaken. Destabilization in the east resulting from the 1994 Rwandan genocide<\/a> and disenfranchisement among the eastern Banyamulenge<\/a> (Congolese Tutsi) population led to a 1996 invasion led by Tutsi<\/a> FPR<\/a>-ruled Rwanda, which began the First Congo War<\/a>.<\/p>\n On 17 May 1997, Laurent-D\u00e9sir\u00e9 Kabila<\/a>, a leader of Tutsi forces from the province of South Kivu<\/a>, became President after Mobutu fled to Morocco<\/a>, 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<\/a> 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. President Laurent-D\u00e9sir\u00e9 Kabila was assassinated by one of his bodyguards on 16 January 2001 and was succeeded eight days later as President by his son Joseph.<\/p>\n The Democratic Republic of the Congo is extremely rich in natural resources but has had political instability, a lack of infrastructure, issues with corruption and centuries of both commercial and colonial extraction and exploitation with little holistic development. Besides the capital Kinshasa<\/a>, the two next largest cities Lubumbashi<\/a> and Mbuji-Mayi<\/a> are both mining communities. DR Congo’s largest export is raw minerals, with China accepting over 50% of DRC’s exports in 2012. In 2016, DR Congo’s level of human development was ranked 176th out of 187 countries by the Human Development Index<\/a>. As of 2018, around 600,000 Congolese have fled to neighboring countries from conflicts in the center and east of the DRC. Two million children risk starvation, and the fighting has displaced 4.5 million people. The sovereign state is a member of the United Nations<\/a>, Non-Aligned Movement<\/a>, African Union<\/a>, and COMESA<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Democratic Republic of the Congo is named after the Congo River, which flows throughout the country. The Congo River is the world’s deepest river and the world’s second largest river by discharge. The Comit\u00e9 d’\u00e9tudes du haut Congo (“Committee for the Study of the Upper Congo”), established by King Leopold II of Belgium in 1876, and the International Association of the Congo<\/a>, established by him in 1879, were also named after the river.<\/p>\n The Congo River itself was named by early European sailors after the Kingdom of Kongo and its Bantu inhabitants, the Kongo people<\/a>, when they encountered them in the 16th century. The word Kongo comes from the Kongo language<\/a> (also called Kikongo). According to American writer Samuel Henry Nelson: “It is probable that the word ‘Kongo’ itself implies a public gathering and that it is based on the root konga, ‘to gather’. The modern name of the Kongo people, Bakongo was introduced in the early 20th century.<\/p>\n The Democratic Republic of the Congo has been known in the past as, in chronological order, the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, the Republic of Congo-L\u00e9opoldville, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Zaire, before returning to its current name the Democratic Republic of the Congo.<\/p>\n At the time of independence, the country was named the Republic of Congo-L\u00e9opoldville to distinguish it from its neighbour the Republic of the Congo-Brazzaville<\/a>. With the promulgation of the Luluabourg Constitution<\/a> on 1 August 1964, the country became the DRC, but was renamed to Zaire (a past name for the Congo River) on 27 October 1971 by President Mobutu Sese Seko as part of his Authenticit\u00e9<\/a> initiative.<\/p>\n The word Zaire is from a Portuguese adaptation of a Kikongo word nzere (“river”), a truncation of nzadi o nzere (“river swallowing rivers”). The river was known as Zaire during the 16th and 17th centuries; Congo seems to have replaced Zaire gradually in English usage during the 18th century, and Congo is the preferred English name in 19th-century literature, although references to Zaire as the name used by the natives (i.e. derived from Portuguese usage) remained common.<\/p>\n In 1992, the Sovereign National Conference voted to change the name of the country to the “Democratic Republic of the Congo”, but the change was not made. The country’s name was restored by President Laurent-D\u00e9sir\u00e9 Kabila following the fall of Mobutu in 1997.<\/p>\n The geographical area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo was populated as early as 90,000 years ago, as shown by the 1988 discovery of the Semliki harpoon<\/a> at Katanda<\/a>, one of the oldest barbed harpoons ever found, believed to have been used to catch giant river catfish<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bantu peoples<\/a> reached Central Africa at some point during the first millennium BC, then gradually started to expand southward. Their propagation was accelerated by the adoption of pastoralism and of Iron Age<\/a> techniques. The people living in the south and southwest were foraging groups, whose technology involved only minimal use of metal technologies. The development of metal tools during this time period revolutionized agriculture and animal husbandry. This led to the displacement of the hunter-gatherer groups in the east and southeast. The final wave of the Bantu expansion was complete by the 10th century, followed by the establishment of the Bantu kingdoms, whose rising populations soon made possible intricate local, regional and foreign commercial networks that traded mostly in slaves, salt, iron and copper.<\/p>\n Belgian exploration and administration took place from the 1870s until the 1920s. It was first led by Sir Henry Morton Stanley, who undertook his explorations under the sponsorship of King Leopold II of Belgium. The eastern regions of the precolonial Congo were heavily disrupted by constant slave raiding, mainly from Arab\u2013Swahili slave traders such as the infamous Tippu Tip<\/a>, who was well known to Stanley.<\/p>\n Leopold had designs on what was to become the Congo as a colony. In a succession of negotiations, Leopold, professing humanitarian objectives in his capacity as chairman of the front organization Association Internationale Africaine<\/a>, actually played one European rival against another.<\/p>\n Leopold formally acquired rights to the Congo territory at the Conference of Berlin in 1885 and made the land his private property. He named it the Congo Free State. Leopold’s regime began various infrastructure projects, such as the construction of the railway that ran from the coast to the capital of Leopoldville (now Kinshasa)<\/a>, which took eight years to complete. Nearly all such infrastructure projects were aimed at making it easier to increase the assets which Leopold and his associates could extract from the colony.<\/p>\n In the Free State, colonists coerced the local population into producing rubber, for which the spread of automobiles and development of rubber tires created a growing international market. Rubber sales made a fortune for Leopold, who built several buildings in Brussels<\/a> and Ostend<\/a> to honor himself and his country. To enforce the rubber quotas, the army, the Force Publique, was called in and made the practice of cutting off the limbs of the natives a matter of policy.<\/p>\n During the period of 1885\u20131908, millions of Congolese died as a consequence of exploitation and disease. In some areas the population declined dramatically \u2013 it has been estimated that sleeping sickness<\/a> and smallpox<\/a> killed nearly half the population in the areas surrounding the lower Congo River.<\/p>\n News of the abuses began to circulate. In 1904, the British consul at Boma in the Congo, Roger Casement<\/a> was instructed by the British government to investigate. His report, called the Casement Report, confirmed the accusations of humanitarian abuses. The Belgian Parliament forced Leopold II to set up an independent commission of inquiry. Its findings confirmed Casement’s report of abuses, concluding that the population of the Congo had been “reduced by half” during this period. Determining precisely how many people died is impossible, as no accurate records exist.<\/p>\n In 1908, the Belgian parliament, in spite of initial reluctance, bowed to international pressure (especially from the United Kingdom<\/a>) and took over the Free State from King Leopold II.<\/p>\n On 18 October 1908, the Belgian parliament voted in favor of annexing the Congo as a Belgian colony. Executive power went to the Belgian minister of colonial affairs, assisted by a Colonial Council. The Belgian parliament exercised legislative authority over the Belgian Congo. In 1926 the colonial capital moved from Boma to L\u00e9opoldville, some 300 kilometers (190 mi) further upstream into the interior.<\/p>\n The transition from the Congo Free State to the Belgian Congo was a break but it also featured a large degree of continuity. The last Governor-general of the Congo Free State, Baron Th\u00e9ophile Wahis<\/a>, remained in office in the Belgian Congo and the majority of Leopold II’s administration with him. Opening up the Congo and its natural and mineral riches to the Belgian economy remained the main motive for colonial expansion \u2013 however, other priorities, such as healthcare and basic education, slowly gained in importance.<\/p>\n Colonial administrators ruled the territory and a dual legal system existed (a system of European courts and another one of indigenous courts, tribunaux indig\u00e8nes). Indigenous courts had only limited powers and remained under the firm control of the colonial administration. Records show that in 1936 728 Belgian administrators ran the colony. The Belgian authorities permitted no political activity in the Congo whatsoever, and the Force Publique, a locally-recruited army under Belgian command, put down any attempts at rebellion.<\/p>\n The Belgian population of the colony increased from 1,928 in 1910 to nearly 89,000 in 1959.<\/p>\n The Belgian Congo was directly involved in the two world wars. During World War I (1914\u20131918), an initial stand-off between the Force Publique and the German colonial army in German East Africa<\/a> (Tanganyika<\/a>) turned into open warfare with a joint Anglo-Belgian invasion of German colonial territory in 1916 and 1917 during the East African Campaign<\/a>. The Force Publique gained a notable victory when it marched into Tabora<\/a> in September 1916 under the command of General Charles Tombeur<\/a> after heavy fighting.<\/p>\n After 1918, Belgium was rewarded for the participation of the Force Publique in the East African campaign with a League of Nations<\/a> mandate over the previously German colony of Ruanda-Urundi<\/a>. During World War II, the Belgian Congo provided a crucial source of income for the Belgian government-in-exile in London<\/a>, and the Force Publique again participated in Allied campaigns in Africa. Belgian Congolese forces under the command of Belgian officers notably fought against the Italian colonial army in Ethiopia in Asosa<\/a>, Borta\u00ef and Sa\u00efo<\/a> under Major-General Auguste-Eduard Gilliaert<\/a> during the second East African Campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n In May 1960, a growing nationalist movement, the Mouvement National Congolais (MNC)<\/a> led by Patrice Lumumba, won the parliamentary elections. Patrice Lumumba thus became the first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then known as the Republic of the Congo, on 24 June 1960. The parliament elected Joseph Kasavubu<\/a> as President, of the Alliance des Bakongo (ABAKO)<\/a> party. Other parties that emerged included the Parti Solidaire Africain (PSA)<\/a> led by Antoine Gizenga<\/a>, and the Parti National du Peuple (PNP) led by Albert Delvaux and Laurent Mbariko.<\/a><\/p>\n The Belgian Congo achieved independence on 30 June 1960 under the name “R\u00e9publique du Congo” (“Republic of Congo” or “Republic of the Congo” in English). As the neighboring French colony of Middle Congo<\/a> (Moyen Congo) also chose the name “Republic of Congo” upon achieving its independence, the two countries were more commonly known as “Congo-L\u00e9opoldville” and “Congo-Brazzaville”, after their capital cities.<\/p>\n Shortly after independence the Force Publique mutinied, and on 11 July the province of Katanga<\/a> (led by Mo\u00efse Tshombe) and South Kasai engaged in secessionist struggles against the new leadership. Most of the 100,000 Europeans who had remained behind after independence fled the country, opening the way for Congolese to replace the European military and administrative elite. On 5 September 1960, Kasavubu dismissed Lumumba from office. Lumumba declared Kasavubu’s action unconstitutional and a crisis between the two leaders developed.<\/p>\n Events set in motion by the U.S. and Belgium on 14 September removed Lumumba from office with forces loyal to Joseph Mobutu. On 17 January 1961, he was handed over to Katangan authorities and executed by Belgian-led Katangese troops. An investigation by the Belgium’s Parliament in 2001 found Belgium “morally responsible” for the murder of Lumumba, and the country has since officially apologized for its role in his death.<\/p>\n Amidst widespread confusion and chaos, a temporary government was led by technicians (the Coll\u00e8ge des commissaires g\u00e9n\u00e9raux<\/a>). The secession ended in January 1963 with the assistance of UN forces. Several short-lived governments, of Joseph Ileo<\/a>, Cyrille Adoula<\/a> and Moise Tshombe, took over in quick succession.<\/p>\n Lumumba had previously appointed Joseph Mobutu chief of staff of the new Congo army, Arm\u00e9e Nationale Congolaise (ANC)<\/a>. Taking advantage of the leadership crisis between Kasavubu and Tshombe, Mobutu garnered enough support within the army to launch a coup. With financial support from the United States and Belgium, Mobutu paid his soldiers privately. The aversion of Western powers to communism and leftist ideology influenced their decision to finance Mobutu’s quest to neutralize Kasavubu and Lumumba in a coup by proxy. A constitutional referendum<\/a> the year before Mobutu’s coup of 1965 resulted in the country’s official name being changed to the “Democratic Republic of the Congo.” In 1971 Mobutu changed the name again, this time to “Republic of Zaire”.<\/p>\n The new president had the staunch support of the United States because of his opposition to Communism; the US believed that his administration would serve as an effective counter to communist movements in Africa. A single-party system was established, and Mobutu declared himself head of state. He periodically held elections in which he was the only candidate. Although relative peace and stability were achieved, Mobutu’s government was guilty of severe human rights violations, political repression, a cult of personality and corruption.<\/p>\n By late 1967 Mobutu had successfully neutralized his political opponents and rivals, either through co-opting them into his regime, arresting them, or rendering them otherwise politically impotent. Throughout the late 1960s Mobutu continued to shuffle his governments and cycle officials in and out of office to maintain control. Kasa-Vubu’s death in April 1969 ensured that no person with First Republic credentials could challenge his rule. By the early 1970s Mobutu was attempting to assert Zaire as a leading African nation. He traveled frequently across the continent while the government became more vocal about African issues, particularly those relating to the southern region. Zaire established semi-clientelist relationships with several smaller African states, especially Burundi, Chad, and Togo.<\/p>\n Corruption became so common the term “le mal Zairois” or “Zairian Sickness”, meaning gross corruption, theft and mismanagement, was coined, reportedly by Mobutu himself. International aid, most often in the form of loans, enriched Mobutu while he allowed national infrastructure such as roads to deteriorate to as little as one-quarter of what had existed in 1960. Zaire became a kleptocracy<\/a> as Mobutu and his associates embezzled government funds.<\/p>\n In a campaign to identify himself with African nationalism, starting on 1 June 1966, Mobutu renamed the nation’s cities: L\u00e9opoldville became Kinshasa (the country was now Congo-Kinshasa), Stanleyville became Kisangani<\/a>, Elisabethville became Lubumbashi, and Coquilhatville became Mbandaka<\/a>. This renaming campaign was completed in the 1970s.<\/p>\n In 1971, Mobutu renamed the country the Republic of Zaire, its fourth name change in eleven years and its sixth overall. The Congo River was renamed the Zaire River.<\/p>\n During the 1970s and 1980s, he was invited to visit the United States on several occasions, meeting with U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon<\/a>, Ronald Reagan<\/a> and George H. W. Bush<\/a>. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union<\/a> U.S. relations with Mobutu cooled, as he was no longer deemed necessary as a Cold War ally. Opponents within Zaire stepped up demands for reform. This atmosphere contributed to Mobutu’s declaring the Third Republic in 1990, whose constitution was supposed to pave the way for democratic reform. The reforms turned out to be largely cosmetic. Mobutu continued in power until armed forces forced him to flee in 1997. “From 1990 to 1993, the United States facilitated Mobutu’s attempts to hijack political change”, one academic wrote, and “also assisted the rebellion of Laurent-Desire Kabila that overthrew the Mobutu regime.”<\/p>\n By 1996, following the Rwandan Civil War<\/a> and genocide and the ascension of a Tutsi-led government in Rwanda, Rwandan Hutu<\/a> militia forces (Interahamwe<\/a>) fled to eastern Zaire and used refugee camps as a base for incursions against Rwanda. They allied with the Zairian Armed Forces (FAZ) to launch a campaign against Congolese ethnic Tutsis in eastern Zaire.<\/p>\n A coalition of Rwandan and Ugandan armies invaded Zaire to overthrow the government of Mobutu, and ultimately to control the mineral resources of Zaire, launching the First Congo War. The coalition allied with some opposition figures, led by Laurent-D\u00e9sir\u00e9 Kabila, becoming the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL)<\/a>. In 1997 Mobutu fled and Kabila marched into Kinshasa, named himself president, and reverted the name of the country to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.<\/p>\n Kabila later requested that foreign military forces return to their own countries. He had concerns that the Rwandan officers running his army were plotting to give the presidency to a Tutsi who would report directly to Rwandan president, Paul Kagame<\/a>. Rwandan troops retreated to Goma and launched a new Tutsi-led rebel military movement called the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratie (RCD)<\/a> to fight Kabila, while Uganda instigated the creation of new rebel movement called the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC)<\/a>, led by Congolese warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba<\/a>. The two rebel movements, along with Rwandan and Ugandan troops, started the Second Congo War by attacking the DRC army in 1998. Angolan, Zimbabwean and Namibian militaries entered the hostilities on the side of the government.<\/p>\n Kabila was assassinated in 2001. His son Joseph Kabila<\/a> succeeded him and called for multilateral peace-talks. UN peacekeepers, MONUC<\/a>, now known as MONUSCO, arrived in April 2001. In 2002 and 2003 Bemba intervened in the Central African Republic<\/a> on behalf of its former president, Ange-F\u00e9lix Patass\u00e9<\/a>. Talks led to a peace accord under which Kabila would share power with former rebels. By June 2003 all foreign armies except those of Rwanda had pulled out of Congo. A transitional government<\/a> was set up until after the election. A constitution was approved by voters, and on 30 July 2006 DRC held its first multi-party elections<\/a>. An election-result dispute between Kabila and Jean-Pierre Bemba turned into an all-out battle between their supporters in the streets of Kinshasa. MONUC took control of the city. A new election took place in October 2006, which Kabila won, and on December 2006 he was sworn in as President.<\/p>\n Laurent Nkunda<\/a>, a member of RCD-Goma<\/a>, an RCD branch integrated to the army, defected along with troops loyal to him and formed the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP)<\/a>, which began an armed rebellion against the government, starting the Kivu conflict. They were believed to be again backed by Rwanda as a way to tackle the Hutu group, Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR)<\/a>. In March 2009, after a deal between the DRC and Rwanda, Rwandan troops entered the DRC and arrested Nkunda and were allowed to pursue FDLR militants. The CNDP signed a peace treaty with the government in which it agreed to become a political party and to have its soldiers integrated into the national army in exchange for the release of its imprisoned members. In 2012 Bosco Ntaganda<\/a>, the leader of the CNDP, and troops loyal to him, mutinied and formed the rebel military March 23 Movement<\/a>, claiming the government violated the treaty.<\/p>\n In the resulting M23 rebellion<\/a>, M23 briefly captured the provincial capital of Goma<\/a> in November 2012. Neighboring countries, particularly Rwanda, have been accused of arming rebels groups and using them as proxies to gain control of the resource-rich country, an accusation they deny. In March 2013, the United Nations Security Council<\/a> authorized the United Nations Force Intervention Brigade<\/a>, the first offensive United Nations peacekeeping unit, to neutralize armed groups. On 5 November 2013, M23 declared an end to its insurgency.<\/p>\n Additionally, in northern Katanga, the Mai-Mai<\/a> created by Laurent Kabila slipped out of the control of Kinshasa with G\u00e9d\u00e9on Kyungu Mutanga’s<\/a> Mai Mai Kata Katanga<\/a> briefly invading the provincial capital of Lubumbashi in 2013 and 400,000 persons displaced in the province as of 2013. On and off fighting in the Ituri conflict<\/a> occurred between the Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI)<\/a> and the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC)<\/a> who claimed to represent the Lendu<\/a> and Hema<\/a> ethnic groups, respectively. In the northeast, Joseph Kony’s<\/a> LRA<\/a> moved from their original bases in Uganda and South Sudan to DR Congo in 2005 and set up camps in the Garamba National Park.<\/p>\n In 2009, The New York Times reported that people in the Congo continued to die at a rate of an estimated 45,000 per month \u2013 estimates of the number who have died from the long conflict range from 900,000 to 5,400,000. The death toll is due to widespread disease and famine; reports indicate that almost half of the individuals who have died are children under five years of age. There have been frequent reports of weapon bearers killing civilians, of the destruction of property, of widespread sexual violence, causing hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes, and of other breaches of humanitarian and human rights law. One study found that more than 400,000 women are raped in the Democratic Republic of Congo every year<\/a>.<\/p>\n The war in the Congo has been described as the bloodiest war since World War II. On 8 December 2017, fourteen UN soldiers and five Congolese regular soldiers were killed in a rebel attack at Semuliki in Beni territory. The rebels were thought to be Allied Democratic Forces<\/a>. UN investigations confirmed that aggressor in the December attack.<\/p>\n According to the Human Rights Watch and the New York University-based Congo Research Group, armed troops in DRC\u2019s eastern Kivu region have killed over 1,900 civilians and kidnapped at least 3,300 people since June 2017 to June 2019.<\/p>\n In 2015, major protests broke out across the country<\/a> and protesters demanded that Joseph Kabila step down as President. The protests began after the passage of a law by the Congolese lower house that, if also passed by the Congolese upper house, would keep Kabila in power at least until a national census was conducted, a process which would likely take several years and therefore keep him in power past the planned 2016 elections, which he is constitutionally barred from participating in.<\/p>\n This bill passed; however, it was gutted of the provision that would keep Kabila in power until a census took place. A census is supposed to take place, but it is no longer tied to when the elections take place. In 2015, elections were scheduled for late 2016 and a tenuous peace held in the Congo.<\/p>\n On 27 November Congolese foreign minister Raymond Tshibanda<\/a> told the press no elections would be held in 2016, after 20 December, the end of president Kabila’s term. In a conference in Madagascar, Tshibanda said that Kabila’s government had “consulted election experts” from Congo, the United Nations and elsewhere, and that “it has been decided that the voter registration operation will end on July 31, 2017, and that elections will take place in April 2018.” Protests broke out in the country on 20 December<\/a> when Kabila’s term in office ended. Across the country dozens of protesters were killed and hundreds were arrested.<\/p>\n According to Jan Egeland<\/a>, presently Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council<\/a>, the situation in the DRC became much worse in 2016 and 2017 and is a major moral and humanitarian challenge comparable to the wars in Syria and Yemen, which receive much more attention. Women and children are abused sexually and “abused in all possible manners”. Besides the conflict in North Kivu<\/a>, violence has gone up in the Kasai region<\/a>. The armed groups are after gold, diamonds, oil, and cobalt to line the pockets of rich men both in the region and internationally. There are also ethnic and cultural rivalries at play, as well as religious motives and the political crisis with postponed elections. He says people believe the situation in the DRC is “stably bad” but in fact it has become much, much worse. “The big wars of the Congo that were really on top of the agenda 15 years ago are back and worsening”. Due to disruption of planting and harvesting caused by the conflict, the UN estimated in March 2018 that two million children risk starvation.<\/p>\n Human Rights Watch said in 2017 that Joseph Kabila recruited former M23 fighters to put down country-wide protests over his refusal to step down from office at the end of his term. “M23 fighters patrolled the streets of Congo\u2019s main cities, firing on or arresting protesters or anyone else deemed to be a threat to the president,” they said.<\/p>\n Fierce fighting has erupted in Masisi between government forces and a powerful local warlord, General Delta. The United Nations mission in the DRC is its largest and most expensive peacekeeping effort, but it shut down five UN bases near Masisi in 2017, after the US led a push to cut costs.<\/p>\n A tribal conflict erupted on 16\u201317 December 2018 at Yumbi<\/a> in Mai-Ndombe Province<\/a>, 400 km (250 miles) north of Kinshasa. Nearly 900 Banunu people from four villages were slaughtered by members of the Batende community in a deep-rooted rivalry over monthly tribal duties, land, fields and water resources. Some 100 Banunus fled to Moniende island in the Congo River, and another 16,000 to Makotimpoko District<\/a> in the Republic of Congo. Military-style tactics were employed in the bloodbath, and some assailants were clothed in army uniforms. Local authorities and elements within the security forces were suspected of lending them support.<\/p>\n On 30 December 2018 the presidential election<\/a> to determine the successor to Kabila was held. On 10 January 2019, the electoral commission announced opposition candidate F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi<\/a> as the winner of the vote.<\/p>\n He was officially sworn in as President on 24 January 2019. However, there were widespread suspicions that the results were rigged and that a deal had been made between Tshisekedi and Kabila. The Catholic Church said that the official results did not correspond to the information its election monitors had collected. The government had also “delayed” the vote until March in some areas, citing the Ebola outbreak in Kivu<\/a> as well as the ongoing military conflict. This was criticized as these regions are known as opposition strongholds. In August 2019, six months after the inauguration of F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi, a coalition government was announced.<\/p>\n The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is located in central sub-Saharan Africa, bordered to the northwest by the Republic of the Congo, to the north by the Central African Republic, to the northeast by South Sudan<\/a>, to the east by Uganda<\/a>, Rwanda<\/a> and Burundi<\/a>, and by Tanzania<\/a> (across Lake Tanganyika<\/a>), to the south and southeast by Zambia<\/a>, to the southwest by Angola<\/a>, and to the west by the South Atlantic Ocean<\/a> and the Cabinda Province<\/a> exclave of Angola. It straddles the Equator, with one-third to the North and two-thirds to the South. The size of Congo, 2,345,408 square kilometers (905,567 sq mi), is slightly greater than the combined areas of Spain, France, Germany, Sweden, and Norway. It is the second largest country in Africa by area, after Algeria.<\/p>\n As a result of its equatorial location, the DRC experiences high precipitation and has the highest frequency of thunderstorms in the world. The annual rainfall can total upwards of 2,000 millimeters (80 in) in some places, and the area sustains the Congo Rainforest<\/a>, the second-largest rain forest in the world after the Amazon<\/a>. This massive expanse of lush jungle covers most of the vast, low-lying central basin of the river, which slopes toward the Atlantic Ocean in the west. This area is surrounded by plateaus merging into savannas in the south and southwest, by mountainous terraces in the west, and dense grasslands extending beyond the Congo River in the north. High, glaciated mountains (Rwenzori Mountains<\/a>) are found in the extreme eastern region.<\/p>\n The tropical climate also produced the Congo River system which dominates the region topographically along with the rainforest it flows through, though they are not mutually exclusive. The name for the Congo state is derived in part from the river. The river basin (meaning the Congo River and all of its myriad tributaries) occupies nearly the entire country and an area of nearly 1,000,000 km2 (390,000 sq mi). The river and its tributaries form the backbone of Congolese economics and transportation. Major tributaries include the Kasai<\/a>, Sangha<\/a>, Ubangi<\/a>, Ruzizi<\/a>, Aruwimi<\/a>, and Lulonga<\/a>.<\/p>\n The sources of the Congo are in the Albertine Rift Mountains<\/a> that flank the western branch of the East African Rift<\/a>, as well as Lake Tanganyika and Lake Mweru<\/a>. The river flows generally west from Kisangani just below Boyoma Falls<\/a>, then gradually bends southwest, passing by Mbandaka, joining with the Ubangi River, and running into the Pool Malebo<\/a> (Stanley Pool). Kinshasa and Brazzaville<\/a> are on opposite sides of the river at the Pool. Then the river narrows and falls through a number of cataracts in deep canyons, collectively known as the Livingstone Falls<\/a>, and runs past Boma<\/a> into the Atlantic Ocean. The river also has the second-largest flow and the second-largest watershed of any river in the world (trailing the Amazon<\/a> in both respects). The river and a 37 kilometers (23 mi) wide strip of coastline on its north bank provide the country’s only outlet to the Atlantic.<\/p>\n The Albertine Rift plays a key role in shaping the Congo’s geography. Not only is the northeastern section of the country much more mountainous, but due to the rift’s tectonic activity, this area also experiences volcanic activity, occasionally with loss of life. The geologic activity in this area also created the African Great Lakes<\/a>, three of which lie on the Congo’s eastern frontier: Lake Albert<\/a> (known during the Mobutu era as Lake Mobutu Sese Seko), Lake Kivu<\/a> (unknown until late 1712), Lake Edward<\/a> (known during the Amin<\/a> era as Lake Idi Amin Dada), and Lake Tanganyika. Lake Edward and Lake Albert are connected by the Semliki River.<\/a><\/p>\n The Rift valley has exposed an enormous amount of mineral wealth throughout the south and east of the Congo, making it accessible to mining. Cobalt<\/a>, copper, cadmium<\/a>, industrial and gem-quality diamonds<\/a>, gold, silver, zinc<\/a>, manganese<\/a>, tin<\/a>, germanium<\/a>, uranium<\/a>, radium<\/a>, bauxite<\/a>, iron ore, and coal are all found in plentiful supply, especially in the Congo’s southeastern Katanga region.<\/p>\n The Central Bank of the Congo<\/a> is responsible for developing and maintaining the Congolese franc<\/a>, which serves as the primary form of currency in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2007, The World Bank decided to grant the Democratic Republic of Congo up to $1.3 billion in assistance funds over the following three years. Kinshasa is currently negotiating membership in the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA)<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Democratic Republic of Congo is widely considered one of the world’s richest countries in natural resources; its untapped deposits of raw minerals are estimated to be worth in excess of US$24 trillion. The Congo has 70% of the world’s coltan, a third of its cobalt, more than 30% of its diamond reserves, and a tenth of its copper.<\/p>\n Despite such vast mineral wealth, the economy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has declined drastically since the mid-1980s. The African country generated up to 70% of its export revenue from minerals in the 1970s and 1980s, and was particularly hit when resource prices deteriorated at that time. By 2005, 90% of the DRC’s revenues derived from its minerals. The country’s woes mean that despite its potential its citizens are among the poorest people on Earth. DR Congo consistently has the lowest, or nearly the lowest, nominal GDP per capita in the world. The DRC is also one of the twenty lowest-ranked countries on the Corruption Perception Index.<\/p>\n The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the world’s largest producer of cobalt ore, and a major producer of copper and diamonds. The latter come from Kasai province in the west. By far the largest mines in the DRC are located in southern Katanga province (formerly Shaba), and are highly mechanized, with a capacity of several million tons per year of copper and cobalt ore, and refining capability for metal ore. The DRC is the second-largest diamond-producing nation in the world, and artisanal<\/a> and small-scale miners account for most of its production.<\/p>\n At independence in 1960, DRC was the second-most industrialized country in Africa after South Africa; it boasted a thriving mining sector and a relatively productive agriculture sector. The First and Second Congo Wars began in 1996. These conflicts have dramatically reduced national output and government revenue, increased external debt, and resulted in deaths of more than five million people from war and associated famine and disease. Malnutrition affects approximately two thirds of the country’s population.<\/p>\n Foreign businesses have curtailed operations due to uncertainty about the outcome of the conflict, lack of infrastructure, and the difficult operating environment. The war intensified the impact of such basic problems as an uncertain legal framework, corruption, inflation, and lack of openness in government economic policy and financial operations.<\/p>\n Conditions improved in late 2002, when a large portion of the invading foreign troops withdrew. A number of International Monetary Fund<\/a> and World Bank<\/a> missions met with the government to help it develop a coherent economic plan, and President Joseph Kabila began implementing reforms. Much economic activity still lies outside the GDP data. A United Nations Human Development Index report shows that the human development index of DRC is one of the worst the country has had in decades. Through 2011 the DRC had the lowest Human Development Index of the 187 ranked countries. It ranked lower than Niger<\/a>, despite a higher margin of improvement than the latter country over 2010’s numbers.<\/p>\n A third of the DRC’s diamonds are believed to be smuggled out of the country, making it difficult to quantify diamond production levels. In 2002, tin was discovered in the east of the country, but to date has only been mined on a small scale. Smuggling of conflict minerals<\/a> such as coltan and cassiterite<\/a>, ores of tantalum<\/a> and tin, respectively, helped to fuel the war in the Eastern Congo.<\/p>\n Ground transport in the Democratic Republic of Congo has always been difficult. The terrain and climate of the Congo Basin<\/a> present serious barriers to road and rail construction, and the distances are enormous across this vast country. The DRC has more navigable rivers and moves more passengers and goods by boat and ferry than any other country in Africa, but air transport remains the only effective means of moving goods and people between many places within the country, especially in rural areas. Chronic economic mismanagement, political corruption and internal conflicts have led to long-term under-investment of infrastructure.<\/p>\n Rail transportation is provided by the Congo Railroad Company (Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Nationale des Chemins de Fer du Congo)<\/a> and the Office National des Transports (Congo) (ONATRA)<\/a> and the Office of the Uele Railways (Office des Chemins de fer des Ueles, CFU). Like much of the infrastructure in the Congo, the railways are poorly maintained, dirty, crowded and dangerous.<\/p>\n The Democratic Republic of the Congo has fewer all-weather paved highways than any country of its population and size in Africa \u2014 a total of 2,250 km (1,400 mi), of which only 1,226 km (762 mi) is in good condition.<\/p>\n The Democratic Republic of Congo has thousands of kilometers of navigable waterways. Traditionally water transport has been the dominant means of moving around in approximately two-thirds of the country.<\/p>\n As of June 2016, DR Congo had one major national airline (Congo Airways<\/a>) that offered flights inside DR Congo. Congo Airways was based at Kinshasa’s international airport<\/a>. All air carriers certified by the DRC have been banned from European Union airports by the European Commission, due to inadequate safety standards.<\/p>\n Several international airlines service Kinshasa’s international airport and a few also offer international flights to Lubumbashi International Airport.<\/a><\/p>\n The national flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (French: drapeau de la r\u00e9publique d\u00e9mocratique du Congo) is a sky blue flag, adorned with a yellow star in the upper left canton and cut diagonally by a red stripe with a yellow fimbriation. It was adopted on 20 February 2006. A new constitution, ratified in December 2005 and which came into effect in February 2006, promoted a return to a flag similar to that flown between 1963 and 1971, with a change from a royal blue to sky blue background. Blue represents peace. Red stands for “the blood of the country’s martyrs”, yellow the country’s wealth; and the star a radiant future for the country.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/City-Map-of-DRC-280x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Etymology:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Congo-River-300x200.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>History:<\/h2>\n
Early History:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Semliki-Harpoon-300x267.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Congo Free State (1877\u20131908):<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Belgian-Expedition-225x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/View-of-Leopoldville-Station-and-Port-in-1884-300x212.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Belgian Congo (1908\u201360):<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Force-Publique-soldiers-in-the-Belgian-Congo-in-1918.-300x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Independence and Political Crisis (1960\u201365):<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Joseph-Kasa-Vubu-256x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Patrice-Lumumba-300x272.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Mobutu and Zaire (1965\u201397):<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Mobutu-Sese-Seko-and-Richard-Nixon-in-Washington-D.C.-1973.-300x194.gif\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Mobutu-with-the-Dutch-Prince-Bernhard-in-Kinshasa-in-1973-300x287.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Continental and Civil Wars (1996\u2013present):<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Belligerents-of-the-Second-Congo-War-300x284.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Kivu Conflict:<\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/People-Fleeing-Their-Villages-North-Kivu-2012-300x200.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Refugees-in-the-Congo-300x199.jpeg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Government-Troops-Near-Goma-2013-300x199.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Upsurge in Violence:<\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Joseph-Kabila-300x169.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Tribal Conflict:<\/h4>\n
2018 Election and New President:<\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/F\u00e9lix-Tshisekedi-198x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Geography:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Ituri-Rainforest-300x200.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Satelite-Image-of-DRC-300x296.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Economy:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Rough-Diamonds-from-DRC-300x279.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Coltan-300x176.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Transportation:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/DRC-Rail-Network-300x250.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Train-from-Lubumbashi-Arriving-in-Kindu-300x275.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Congo-Airways-Flight-Crew-300x220.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Flag-of-the-DRC-300x225.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>