| Brief Background |
| Location |
Central Africa |
| Capital |
Kinshasa |
| Main Religion |
Christianity (Catholicism and Protestantism) |
| National Language |
French. Other main languages are Lingala, Kingwana, Kikongo
and Tshiluba. |
| Government |
The country has a transitory regime and is in civil war |
| History |
Congo is a name shared by two neighbouring countries in Central Africa,
largely drained by the Congo River and usually distinguished by their full official
names and occasionally by adding their capital cities:
- The Republic of the Congo (ROC), also known
as "Congo-Brazzaville" and locally as "Braza".
- The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo or "Congo-Kinshasa" -
this page) is the larger of the two countries. It was once the personal property of
King Leopold II of Belgium, when it was known as the
"Congo Free State", and later a Belgian colony when it was renamed to
Belgian Congo.
It was known as Zaire from 1971 to 1997. (During this
time the other Congo came to be known simply as "Congo".)
In 1960, Katanga Province declared its independence from
the rest of Zaire and issued its own license plates. It rejoined Zaire in 1963
and was renamed Shaba province but later reverted to Katanga in 1997. |
| International Oval |
CGO |
| ISO Code |
CGO |
|
