ECDC-CARI - African Countries - The Democratic Republic of Congo (the DRC)

The Democratic Republic of Congo (the DRC)

Date of Independence : June 30, 1960
Capital: Kinshasa
Languages: French, Lingala, Kiswahili, Kikongo, Tshiluba
Major Religions: Christianity, Islam
Ethnic groups: Ovimbundu, Mbundu, Bakong, Lunda-Chokwe, Nganguela, Mestico (mixed European and African)
Currency: Congolese franc
Population: 56 million (2005)
Main exports: Diamonds, copper, coffee, cobalt, crude oil

The Democratic Republic of Congo (the DRC) is a vast, resource-filled country located in central Africa, covering an area roughly one-quarter the size of the U.S. Since its independence in 1960 the DRC has been ravaged by civil wars and coups. The Congolese suffered under brutal colonial rule by Belgium and is still dealing with the after-effects. Its rich mineral and fossil fuel reserves and its prime location gave the DRC strategic importance during the Cold War, one that ended with the War, as superpowers began to extricate themselves from Africa. As a result of these factors, the DRC is one of Africa’s most unstable countries.

Congo ’s troubled history began in 1877, when Leopold II, ruler of Belgium sponsored explorations into the area seeking to obtain a piece of the African continent as a colony. He couched his ambitions in humanitarian concerns, as the chairman of Association Internationale Africaine, a shell organization supposedly designed to further humanitarian projects in Central Africa. Leopold began slowly establishing a military, diplomatic and economic presence in the area. At the Berlin Conference of 1855, he shrewdly manipulated his European rivals into giving the entire area, not to Belgium, but to himself, as a private kingdom. From that point, he ruled through terror, using mass killings and maimings to procure slave labor for the rubber trade. He was able to operate with impunity and in secrecy, since the area, then known as the Congo Free State, was his possession.

It was not until 1908, after years of reports of the killings and torture, that the European powers took action and removed Leopold from power. Congo Free State was turned over to Belgium as a colony and became Belgian Congo. Estimates of the death toll from Leopold’s rule go as high as 22 million people, tantamount to genocide.

Belgium ruled the Congo until 1960. Though the government made vast improvements in the lives of the Congolese, building schools and hospitals, Congolese still had no power and all decisions were made in Belgium. Protests and demonstrations led Belgium to grant independence in 1960. Patrice Lumumba, head of the Mouvement Nationale Congolese, became Prime Minister. Joseph Kasavubu, of the Alliance des Bakongo party, was elected President. The Belgians decided to move independence forward, and the Congo was granted

Radically pro-Soviet, Lumumba’s leadership was challenged by all sides, and his term of office was extremely short-lived. In 1960, the Congolese province of Moisie Tshombe declared its independence with the support of Belgium, which wanted to maintain its control over the lucrative copper and tin mining. Lumumba and Kasavubu fell into disagreement, when Kasavubu illegally dismissed Lumumba from office. Taking advantage of the power struggle, the Congolese army’s Chief of Staff, Joseph Mobutu, took office in a coup d’etat. Lumumba was arrested and tortured. In 1961, he was executed.

In 1965 Joseph Mobutu took power and changed his name to Mobutu Sese Sekou. In 1971 he renamed the Congo Zaire and ruled virtually uninterrupted until 1996 when, during the first Congo war, he was removed from power by Laurent Kabila. Kabila changed the name of the country back to the Democratic Republic of Congo-Kinshasa. Kabila’s government was almost immediately challenged, a challenge that led to Africa’s most deadly conflict, the Second Congo War.

The conflict began in 1998 and ended officially in 2003. Dubbed the African World War, the war involved nine countries and over twenty armed groups. With the DRC at its center, the conflict was Africa’s largest interstate war in modern history. Government forces at different times received support from the Sudan, Libya, Angola, Namibia, Chad and Zimbabwe. An estimated 3.8 million died, mostly from starvation and disease. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee the Congo and seek asylum in nearby countries. The war threatened to destabilize the entire region.

The conflict has not been completely resolved, however. Government forces have continued to clash with Congolese of Rwandan origin in the eastern part of the country, again causing massive displacements of people.