Congo

The Republic of Congo, “Congo-Brazzaville”, is a country in Central Africa straddling the equator. The country is largely covered by dense forest, locally exploited.

It has an estimated population of 5.5 million inhabitants in 2019 spread over an area of 342,000 km2 or a density of 16.2 inhabitants/km2.

The country stretches 1,500 km from North to South and 425 km from East to West and its capital Brazzaville faces Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, across the Congo River.

Congo is located on both sides of the equator. Its neighbors are: Gabon to the West; Cameroon to the North-West; the Central African Republic to the North-North-East; the Democratic Republic of Congo to the North-East, South-East and South – from which it is separated, in part, by the Congo River and then the Ubangi and Cabinda (Angola) to the South-West.

Oil is the main source of exports. The only two major cities are the political capital, Brazzaville, and the economic capital, Pointe-Noire.

Congo receives more than 1,200 mm of rain per year, except in the Niari Valley, but rainfall rarely exceeds 1,700 mm. The rhythm of rainfall is marked by the existence of a dry season, four months long in the South (June-September), which lasts another month below the equator and during which the temperature drops significantly. The “short dry season” of December-January is only a slowing down of the rains. The average heat is between 24 and 26 °C, and the maximums are never very high. The Congo River and the Ubangi River border the Democratic Republic of Congo; the Niari-Kouilou River has a purely Congolese basin.