Geography of the Republic of the Congo

The Republic of the Congo is located on the Atlantic coast of central Africa. Located on the equator, with an area of 342,000 km², of which 341,500 km² are land and 500 km² are water, it is bordered to the north by the Central African Republic (487 km) and Cameroon (494 km), to the west by Gabon (2,567 km), to the south with Angola, through the enclave of Cabinda (231 km), and to the south and east with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1,229 km).

The country has a relatively sparse coastline (169 km), which is home to the country's second largest city, Pointe-Noire (pop. 663,400 in 2005). On the other hand, the territories to the north of Brazaville, the capital (1.5 million inhabitants), are dominated by extensive jungle areas. In this sense, it is worth highlighting the state of Impfondo, the only one completely dominated by the jungle. The country's most important jungle city is Ouesso.

70 percent of the population lives in Brazzaville, in Pointe-Noire or along the railway line that connects them.

Relief

Map of the Republic of the Congo

The Republic of the Congo is crossed in its center by the equator. A good part of the country is made up of flat lowlands, including the Congo Basin, the Niari Valley and the coastal plain. The Congo basin is surrounded by hills and plateaus, which also appear in other places, such as the north-west and the central part of the country (Bateké plateaus), reaching 800 mm in altitude.

Along the coast stretches a plain about 65 km wide and 160 km long between Gabon and Cabinda. It is followed by a mountain range of no more than 400 m, the Sierra de Mayombé, parallel to the coast, crossed by narrow gorges.

To the north of the Sierra de Mayombé is the Niari Valley, a depression 200 km wide. To the north and Gabon, rises the Chaillu massif, which reaches 903 m on Mount Berongou, although most of it is located in the neighboring country, in the Birougou National Park. It is followed by a series of plateaus, the Bembe plateau, between the Niari valley and the Chaillu massif, and the Batéké plateau, between Brazzaville and Mpouya, with heights approaching 500 m, with a part also in Gabon..

From here to the north, the country is dominated by the Congo River Basin, a 155,000 km² plain cut by numerous tributaries that flow first north and then east towards the Congo River.

In the northwest, in the department of Sangha, is the highest peak, Mount Nabemba, at 1,020 m, which has given its name to the Nabemba Tower in Brazzaville, the tallest building in the country.

Hydrography

The country is dominated by the Congo River Basin, whose main tributary, the Ubangui River, flows south from the Central African Republic and forms the northern part of the eastern border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, between the 3rd parallels. o 28' N and 0.o 31' N, with almost 500 km. It empties into the Congo River with an average flow of almost 6,000 m³/s, and from here the Congo River channel, with its many branches, occupies a bed about 10 km wide for more than 300 km, then narrows to 2 km and travels another 300 km as it passes through Brazzaville and leaves the country some 130 km south of the capital to enter the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As it crosses Brazzaville, it forms a lake called Pool Malebo, on whose eastern shore is Kinshasa, the capital of the neighboring country. Its largest tributary, with a basin of more than 200,000 km² and 790 km of travel in the north, is the Sangha River, with an average flow at the mouth of 2,470 m³/s. Other notable tributaries are the Likouala, Alima, Nkéni, Léfini, Djoué and Foulakari rivers.

The coastal plain is drained by the Kouilou-Niari river, which flows through the Niari valley, with a basin of 62,000 km², and crosses the Mayemba mountain range towards the sea, with an average flow of 856 m³/s. In the upper part it is called the Niari River, it has numerous waterfalls and the mouth is closed by a sand bar caused by the strong Benguela current.

Climate

Republic of the Congo

In the north of the country, the climate is equatorial and the rains occur all year round, with two significantly less rainy periods from December to February and in July. The center of the country is a subequatorial zone, with two wettest seasons in March-April and October-November. The southwest is a humid tropical zone, with a rainy season from October to May and a dry season from June to September. Rainfall oscillates between 1,000 mm in the driest areas, and 3,000 mm in the most humid areas.

Temperatures are stable throughout the year in the north, with gentle drops in July and August; in Ouésso, with an annual average that oscillates between 21.oC and 31.oC, 1,590 mm of rain falls per year in 106 days, with less precipitation between December and February. In Pointe-Noire, in the coastal area of the south of the country, 1,250 mm fall in 84 days with an ostensibly dry period between June and September, and a refreshment. In Brazzaville, at an altitude of 320 m, in the southeast, next to the Congo River, 1,343 mm fall in 85 days, with a very dry period between June and September and between 18 and 25.oC temperature, against 24-30.oC for the wet season.

National parks and protected areas

Forest elephants in the Mbeli River, in the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park.

Map of the Republic of the Congo with some national parks and wildlife reserves.

The Republic of the Congo is located in a hot and humid region that allows for the existence of a dense rainforest that covers two-thirds of the country. As Congo's economic development depends on the logging industry, four national parks have been created to protect the forest, some of which share protected areas with neighboring countries, and a fifth, Ougoue Lekiti National Park, is in the pipeline., in the southwest, of 6,000 km², which would be attached to the Batéké Plateaus National Park, in Gabon. In 2010, 10% of the Congo's surface was protected, about 40,000 km².

• Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, 1993, 4,238.7 km2, in the northwest, Congolese part of the Sangha Trinational forest, an area of tropical rainforest shared between the Republic of the Congo, Cameroon and the Central African Republic, which occupies a total of 754,286 ha (7,542 km2); forest elephants, western plain gorillas, chimpanzees, tiger fish, etc. An even more ambitious project would join the Minkébé National Park of Gabon, which would take the park at 30,000 km2.
• Odzala-Kokou National Park, 1935, 13,600 km2, northwest, tropical forest; forest elephant, plain gorilla, chimpanzees, etc. It is part of the TRIDOM Cross-Border Park, which brings together a rainforest area combined with Cameroon and Gabon of 178,000 km2.
• Conkouati-Douli National Park, 1999, 5,045 km2, near the coast on the border with Gabon, wetlands, dense forest and lagoons, mangroves and savannah area in the southwest; forest elephants, plain gorillas, chimpanzees, hippos, jackals, buffaloes, etc.
• Ntokou-Pikounda National Park, 2012, 4.572 km2, northern center, tropical jungle, western plain gorillas, forest elephants and chimpanzees.

Other notable protected areas are:

• Dimonika Biosphere Reserve, 1,360 km2, a mixture of Congo jungle and savannah between 85 m of altitude near the coast and 810 m of Bamba Mountain.
• Lefini reserve, 6300 km2, southeast, pastureland, swamp and gallery forest, elephants, buffaloes, hippos, chimpanzees, etc. At 140 km from Brazzaville, in 2009 it was extended to protect the gorillas until it exceeds 1700 km2 with the name of Gorilas de Lésio-Louna Natural Reserve.
• Lékoli-Pandaka Fauna Reserve, 682 km2, between Odzala-Kokou National Park, north, and Mboko Caza Reserve, 900 km2, south. Forest and savannah. Ombivole forest with clears, lions and hippos.
• Wildlife reserves of Mount Fouari (159 km2, southwest, border with Gabon), Nyanga Norte (77 km2), Nyanga Sur (230 km2) and Mt Mavoumbou (420 km2), total 980 km2; savannah and pasturelands, forests gallery, subecuatorial climate, with dry season from May to September; buffalo, potamoquero, water cobo, etc.
• Tsoulou wildlife reserve, 300 km2, south center, jungle; forest elephant, gorilla, etc.
• Community Reserve of Lake Télé/Likouala-aux-Herbes, 4.390 km2 of wetland, Ramsar site since 1989, northern center of the country. Forest and swamps, 27 villages, 17,000 hectares. around Lake Télé. Gorillas.

In the Republic of the Congo there are four major ecoregions that occupy the low-lying areas of the country: the Western Congo Rainforest-Savannah Mosaic, the Atlantic Equatorial Coastal Rainforest, the North-West Congo Lowland Forest, and the Congo Swamp Forest western.

The Congo Basin encompasses the north of the country, most of Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, southern Cameroon and the Central African Republic, and northern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is characterized by being a mosaic of rivers, savannahs, wetlands and floodplain forests in which forest elephants and lowland gorillas abound, as well as chimpanzees and bonobos. There are about ten thousand species of plants, of which 30 percent are unique. There are 400 species of mammals, 1,000 species of birds, and 700 species of fish discovered so far.

Population and ethnic groups of the Republic of the Congo

An anthropomorphic figure of the Kongo people.

The Republic of Congo has an estimated population of 5.5 million in 2019, which is expected to double by 2045 according to United Nations analyses. Half of the population lives in the two main cities, Brazzaville and Point- Noire, in the southwest of the country, and three quarters live in urban areas, leaving just over 1 million people spread over more than 300,000 km² of territory covered in forests.

Fertility is very high, at 5.1 children per woman, which rises to 6.5 in rural areas, with a population growth of 3% per year. every 3 minutes a child is born, while a person dies every 14 minutes.

Ethnicities

Almost all Congolese are Bantu, and only 3% are non-Bantu, including the Pygmies, more than 30,000 of whom live in the deep jungles of the north and west. Among the Bantu there are some 74 ethnic groups, of which the majority, representing 40.5% of the country's inhabitants, are Kongo. According to the CIA, the rest of the important ethnic groups are divided into Teke (16.9%), mbochi (13.1%), foreigners (8.2%), sangha (5.6%), mbere/mbeti/kele (4 4%), Punu (4.3%), Pygmies (1.6%), Ubanguians (1.6%), Duma (1.5%), Makaa (1.3%) and others, 1% (2014-15 estimate).

• Kongo or bakongo live south of the country, from Brazzaville to Point-Noire, and from here to Luanda in Angola. It is about 2 million of a total population that exceeds 10 million if the DRC and Angola are added. They include the lari around Brazzaville, the vili around Point-Noire, the lombe, yombe or bayombe in the Sierra de Mayombé, the babembe, the basundi and the bakamba.

• Teke or bateke. They are the second group, 17%, about 900,000 individuals. They live in the savannah north of Brazzaville, where they boast of hunting birds and gazelles. They are merchants and perform masks and statues of great artistic quality. They speak the teke languages. Shared between Gabon, DRC and the Congo.

• Mbochi or m'boshi are about 600,000. They live in the savannah and the jungles of the northwest, north of the department of Plateaux and in the Cuvette and Cuvette-West, around Boundji, Owando, Mbomo, Etoumbi, Mossaka, Oyo and Makoua, and along rivers navigable like the Kouyou, Alima, Sangha and Likouala. They are the origin of much of the migration to Brazzaville, where they work as workers and servants. Among the subgroups are kuyu, makua, bonga, bobangi, moye, ngare and mboko.

Languages

Some 62 languages are spoken in the Republic of the Congo. Kituba and Lingala are the national languages, although the official language is French. Kikongo is the basis of the lingua franca, kituba or monokutuba. The other languages are kikongo, téké, mboshi, and other languages, including those of the pygmies.