DR Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is located in Central Africa, northeast of Angola. It is the second largest country in Africa, and the eleventh largest in the world. As of July 2013, the estimated population of the DRC is 75, 507, 308. The DRC is composed of over 200 African ethnic groups. The majority of these ethnic groups are Bantu. The four largest tribes-Mongo, Luba, Kongo (these three are Bantu tribes), and Mangbetu-Azande (a Hamitic tribe) make up 45% of the DRC population. The DRC is a country rich in natural resources. In certain areas, it holds a beautiful landscape and experiences a tropical climate near the Congo River basin, a cooler drier climate in the southern highlands, and a cooler wetter climate in the eastern highlands. 

Contributed to its history as being established as a Belgian colony in 1908, the official language of the country remains French. In 1960, the then Republic of Congo gained its independence from Belgium, causing much political unrest. When Col. Joseph Mobutu declared himself president of the country in 1965, he also changed the name of the country to Zaire. Ethnic strife and civil war combined with the stress of the influx of Rwandan genocide refugees in 1994 lead to a massive outbreak of violent warfare and the overthrowing of the Mobutu regime in 1997. Under new leadership, the country was renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1998. However, since that time, shiftings in power and political allegiances has caused much destruction in the DRC. Still largely undergoing civil warfare, the DRC struggles against famine, disease, and combatant murder. Violent groups constantly battle to achieve power. It has been noted that a choice weapon of warfare in the DRC, due to its affordability, is rape. The prevalence of rape and other sexual violence has been described as some of the worst in the world.  The DRC has been voted as the #1 place on earth least accommodating to women.  

 Since the war began in 1998, there have been 5.4 million deaths. A vast majority of these deaths-around 90%- were not from combat, but from preventable diseases such as malaria, pneumonia, and malnutrition. These diseases were ascertained due to displaced populations of a war torn country being forced to live in unsanitary and over crowded conditions. Forty-seven percent of these deaths were children under the age of five. This is astonishing when paired with the fact the children ages 0-14 make up around 43% of the DRC population. It has been published that 1 in every 4 children in the DRC will be dead before they are 5 years of age. 30% of all children in the DRC suffer from malnutrition.  Many of these children are true orphans. For every 100,000 live births, 540 birth mothers die due to child birth complications associated with malnutrition and unsanitary conditions. It is estimated that around 15% of the DRCs 18 years and younger population are orphaned children. 

Photo Credit: ACF-DR Congo, S. Vidyarthi

For more information on the DRC, please visit: 

CIA world Factbook DRC

***While currently I am no longer adopting from the DR Congo, it still captures my heart. I feel like leaving this tab open on this blog as a reminder for everyone to continue to pray for all of the suffering orphaned children in this country. Thank You.