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The DRC is the second-largest diamond-producing nation in the world, [c] and artisanal and small-scale miners account for most of its production. At independence in 1960, DRC was the second-most-industrialized country in Africa after South Africa; it boasted a thriving mining sector and a relatively productive agriculture sector. [210]
Below is a list of countries in Africa by area. [1] Algeria has been the largest country in Africa and the Arab world since the division of Sudan in 2011. The largest African country not located in the Arab world is the Democratic Republic of the Congo located in Central Africa, which is also the second largest in the continent.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo, is a country in Central Africa. By land area, the country is the second-largest country in Africa and the 11th-largest in the world.
Currently, there are 44 landlocked countries, two of them doubly landlocked (Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan), and three landlocked de facto states in the world. Kazakhstan is the world's largest landlocked country, Kyrgyzstan is the furthest landlocked country from any ocean, while Ethiopia is the world's most populous landlocked country. [1] [2]
The country's core region is the central Congo Basin. [1] Having an average elevation of about 44 metres (144 ft), it measures roughly 800,000 square kilometres (310,000 sq mi), constituting about a third of the DRC's territory. [1] Much of the forest within the basin is swamp, and still more of it consists of a mixture of marshes and firm land ...
Between 1971 and 1997 (during the rule of Mobutu Sese Seko when Congo was known as Zaire), its official name was Shaba Province. [1] Katanga's area encompassed 497,000 square kilometres (192,000 sq mi). Farming and ranching are carried out on the Katanga Plateau.
Zaire was established following Mobutu's seizure of power in a military coup in 1965, after five years of political upheaval following independence from Belgium known as the Congo Crisis. Zaire had a strongly centralist constitution, and foreign assets were nationalized. The period is sometimes referred to as the Second Congolese Republic.
When Belgium annexed the Belgian Congo as a colony in November 1908, it was initially organised into 22 districts. Ten western districts were administered directly by the main colonial government, while the eastern part of the colony was administered under two vice-governments: eight northeastern districts formed Orientale Province, and four southeastern districts formed Katanga.