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	Coat of Arms of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a country in Central Africa. By land area, the DRC is the second-largest country in Africa and the 11th-largest in the world. With a population of around 105 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most populous Francophone country in the world. The national capital and largest city is Kinshasa, which is also the economic center. The country is bordered by the Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania (across Lake Tanganyika), Zambia, Angola, the Cabinda exclave of Angola, and the South Atlantic Ocean.

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. King Leopold II of Belgium formally acquired rights to the Congo territory from the colonial nations of Europe in 1885 and declared the land his private property, naming it the Congo Free State. From 1885 to 1908, his colonial military forced the local population to produce rubber and committed widespread atrocities. In 1908, Leopold ceded the territory, which thus became a Belgian colony.

Congo achieved independence from Belgium on 30 June 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 a 1965 coup d'état. Mobutu renamed the country Zaire in 1971 and imposed a harsh personalist dictatorship until his overthrow in 1997 by the First Congo War. The country then had its name changed back and was confronted by the Second Congo War from 1998 to 2003, which resulted in the deaths of 5.4 million people. The war ended under President Joseph Kabila, who governed the country from 2001 to 2019, 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. 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. Since 2015, the Eastern DR Congo has been the site of an ongoing military conflict in Kivu.

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, followed by more than 60 years of independence, 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 2021, DR Congo's level of human development was ranked 179th out of 191 countries by the Human Development Index and is classed as a least developed country by the UN. , following two decades of various civil wars and continued internal conflicts, around 600,000 Congolese refugees were still living in neighbouring countries. Two million children risk starvation, and the fighting has displaced 4.5 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...)

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Jean de Dieu Makiese (28 May 1950 – 11 August 2007), popularly known as Madilu System, was a Congolese rumba singer and songwriter, born in what was then Léopoldville, Belgian Congo. He was once a member of the seminal band TPOK Jazz which dominated the Congolese scene from 1960s through 1980s. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various Democratic Republic of the Congo-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1A woman carrying bananas. (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 2A classroom in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 3People fleeing their villages due to fighting between FARDC and rebel groups, North Kivu, 2012 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 4A group of demobilized child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 5The four Bantu languages with elevated "national" status. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 6A Hemba male statue (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 7The leader of ABAKO, Joseph Kasa-Vubu, first democratically elected President of Congo-Léopoldville (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 8DR Congo's Human Development Index scores, 1970–2010. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 9Kasaï-Central province, where the Kamwina Nsapu militia clashes with security forces began. (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 10The Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral, Lubumbashi (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 11President Félix Tshisekedi with the president of neighbouring Republic of the Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso in 2020; both wear face masks due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 12Population fleeing their villages due to fighting between FARDC and rebels groups, Sake North Kivu 30 April 2012 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 13Train from Lubumbashi arriving in Kindu on a newly refurbished line. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 14The endangered mountain gorilla; half of its population live in the DRC's Virunga National Park, making the park a critical habitat for these animals. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 15Ndeemba Mask (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 16View of Leopoldville Station and Port in 1884 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 17Roman Catholic Church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 18Branhamist worshippers in Kinshasa (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 19Congolese soldiers being trained by UN personnel. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 20Joseph Kabila was President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from January 2001 to January 2019. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 211908 photograph of a married Christian couple. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 22Belligerents of the Second Congo War (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 23Memory Board (lukasa) - Luba Kingdom (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 24A map of the major Bantu languages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 25Abeti Masikini in 1978 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 26Mobutu Sese Seko and Richard Nixon in Washington, D.C., 1973. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 27Change in per capita GDP of Congo, 1950–2018. Figures are inflation-adjusted to 2011 International dollars. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 28The map of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 29Force Publique soldiers in the Belgian Congo in 1918. At its peak, the Force Publique had around 19,000 Congolese soldiers, led by 420 Belgian officers. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 30Map of the Kingdom of Kongo (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 31Our Lady of Peace Cathedral in Bukavu (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 32President Joseph Kabila with U.S. President Barack Obama in August 2014 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 33Democratic Republic of the Congo map of Köppen climate classification (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 34Children mutilated during King Leopold II's rule (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 35Arab slave raid on Nyangwe, circa 1870 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 36Franco Luambo and his OK Jazz orchestra performing live at Zaire 74 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 37Flag of CNDP (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 38Map of rail network (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 39Ituri Rainforest (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 40Ugandan President Idi Amin Visits Zaire and Meets Mobutu during The Shaba I Conflict (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 41Found in the Congolian rainforests, the okapi was unknown to science until 1901 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 42Government troops near Goma during the M23 rebellion in May 2013 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 43Breakdown of the largest ethnic groups in DRC (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 44Refugees in the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 45Democratic Republic of the Congo's population between 1960 and 2017. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 46Mobutu Sese Seko (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 47Rough diamonds ≈1 to 1.5 mm in size from DR Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 48Mobutu with the Dutch Prince Bernhard in Kinshasa in 1973 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 49A Congolese Christian. (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 50Patrice Lumumba, first democratically elected Prime Minister of the Congo-Léopoldville, was murdered by Belgian-supported Katangan separatists in 1961. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 51Collecting firewood in Basankusu. (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 52Masque féminin Ngaady a mwaash, XIX-XXe siècles (from Culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 53Congo Free State official Camille Coquilhat with the Bangala chief Mata-Buiké in c. 1888 (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 54Patrice Lumumba, founding member and leader of the MNC (from History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Image 55Development of life expectancy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Democratic Republic of the Congo)

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The common eland (Taurotragus oryx), also known as the southern eland or eland antelope, is a large-sized savannah and plains antelope found in East and Southern Africa. An adult male is around 1.6 m (5.2 ft) tall at the shoulder (females are 20 cm (7.9 in) shorter) and can weigh up to 942 kg (2,077 lb) with a typical range of 500–600 kg (1,100–1,300 lb), 340–445 kg (750–981 lb) for females).

It is the second-largest antelope in the world, being slightly smaller on average than the giant eland. It was scientifically described by Peter Simon Pallas in 1766. (Full article...)

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T. d. derbianus
Senegal

The giant eland (Taurotragus derbianus), also known as the Lord Derby's eland and greater eland, is an open-forest and savanna antelope. A species of the family Bovidae and genus Taurotragus, it was described in 1847 by John Edward Gray. The giant eland is the largest species of antelope, with a body length ranging from 220–290 cm (87–114 in). There are two subspecies: T. d. derbianus and T. d. gigas.

The giant eland is a herbivore, eating grasses, foliage and branches. They usually form small herds consisting of 15–25 members, both males and females. Giant elands are not territorial, and have large home ranges. They are naturally alert and wary, which makes them difficult to approach and observe. They can run at up to 70 km/h (43 mph) and use this speed as a defence against predators. Mating occurs throughout the year but peaks in the wet season. They mostly inhabit broad-leafed savannas, woodlands and glades. (Full article...)