Congo Facts, Religion, Currency, Population, People, History

Congo Facts, Religion, Currency, Population, People, History. Travel to Congo, an overview of the country from The Bespoke African Safari Co.

Previously known as Zaire, the huge nation of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (often abbreviated as DR Congo, DRC, DROC, Congo-Kinshasa, and simply the Congo) is located in the heart of sub-Saharan Africa.

There are nine countries that border the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC): Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The country’s only connection to the Atlantic Ocean is a 45-kilometer-wide sliver of shoreline in the west. Lake Albert, Lake Edward, Lake Kivu, Lake Tanganyika, and Lake Mweru form a chain along the eastern border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

With a total land area of 2,344,858 km2, the DROC is the second largest country in Africa (after Algeria). It is roughly three times the size of Turkey and slightly smaller than one-quarter the size of the United States.

DR Congo has a population of 71,2 million people (est. 2015), capital and largest city is Kinshasa. French is the official language, although numerous others are used as well, including Lingala (spoken primarily in the north), Kikongo, Kituba (widely used as a lingua franca throughout Central Africa), Swahili, and Tshiluba.