DR Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DR Congo, is the third-largest country in Africa. The nation was a former colony of Belgium and won its independence on June 30, 1960.

In May 2009, the BBC reported that dozens of people in eastern Congo were killed in raids by Rwandan Hutu rebels over the weekend of May 8, 2009. The killings are thought to be retaliation for a joint offensive by Congolese and Rwandan troops against the Rwandan Hutu rebels from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda.BBC: 'Dozens killed' in DR Congo raids (May 13, 2009)

Scientists estimate the area now known as the DR Congo has been occupied since second millennium BC. A society, known as the Upemba that later morphed into the Luba Empire, started to form in the area in the Fifth Century.

The first European explorer to come to the Congo was Sir Henry Morton Stanley in the 1870s, who claimed the area for King Leopold II of Belgium. The land became the private property of King Leopold in the 1880s, who renamed it the "Congo Free State" and proceeded to turn the area into a leading source for rubber. The local population was pressed into Leopold's service, often through the use of brutal, violent methods.

Bowing to international pressure, Belgium shifted the Congo to its own state, under the rule of the Belgian government, in 1908, changing the name to the Belgian Congo. In 1960, the country was granted sovereignty, and in 1966, it changed its name again to the current form, the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Lieutenant General Joseph-Désiré Mobutu overthrew the government in 1966 in a military coup. In 1971, he changed its name yet again, this time to Zaire. Mobutu fled the nation in 1997 and the name reverted to its pre-Zaire form.

• Wikipedia: Geography of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

• Congo Pages: Geography

• CIA World Factbook: DR Congo Geography

• 

  Creative Commons image by "CIA World Factbook"