Democratic Republic of the Congo

Lore & Background

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 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 an influx of refugees from the Rwandan Civil War led to the First Congo War, from 1996 to 1997, which ended with Mobutu's overthrow. The country's name was changed, and it experienced the Second Congo War from 1998 to 2003, which resulted in an estimated several million deaths and the assassination of President Laurent-Désiré Kabila. The war ended under President Joseph Kabila, who restored relative stability. 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 after Félix Tshisekedi won the contentious 2018 election, marking the country's first peaceful transition of power since independence. Over 120 armed groups remain active, concentrated in the east. One of the region's largest cities, Goma, was occupied by the M23 rebels in 2012 and again since 2025. The M23 uprising escalated in 2025 with military support from Rwanda, which has caused a conflict between the two countries.

In Their Own Story

As the sun dips below the horizon over Kinshasa, it casts a golden sheen across the Congo River, turning the water into liquid amber. A fisherman navigates his canoe against the current, the rhythmic splash of his paddle syncing with the timeless pulse of the basin that has linked villages to cities for millennia. In the distance, the electric hum of the city blends with the call of birds fading into the deep forest—a reminder that this land is as untamed as it is alive.

Reader's Guide

Despite being rich in natural resources, the DRC is one of the world's poorest and least developed countries, having suffered from political instability, lack of infrastructure, rampant corruption, and centuries of commercial and colonial extraction and exploitation. The nation is a prominent example of the 'resource curse'. Aside from Kinshasa, the next largest cities, Lubumbashi and Mbuji-Mayi, are mining communities. DRC's main exports are raw minerals and metal, which accounted for 80% of exports in 2023, with China being its largest trade partner. The DRC's level of human development was ranked 171 out of 193 countries by the Human Development Index in 2023. As of 2022, following two decades of civil wars and 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 million people. The DRC 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.

Did You Know?

• The Congo River is the world's deepest river and the world's third-largest river by discharge.
• The word 'Zaire' is from a Portuguese adaptation of a Kikongo word nzadi ('river'), a truncation of nzadi o nzere ('river swallowing rivers').
• The DRC is the most populous Francophone country in the world.
• The country was renamed Zaire in 1971 by President Mobutu Sese Seko as part of his Authenticité initiative.