Formerly known as Zaire, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DROC) is located in the center of Africa bordered by nine different countries and one territory. (Lerner, 10) The bordering countries are Central African Republic and Sudan at the northern boarder, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Burundi on the eastern boarder, Zambia and Angola directly South of DROC and Congo on the Western boarder. DROC is about one third the size of the United States; consisting of 905,365 square miles of territory it is also the third largest country within the African continent, smaller only to Sudan and Algeria. (Background Notes, 1)Much like the United States DROC has one major capital and small city capitals. The major capital of the country is Kinshasa, holding a population of 6.55 million alone. The city capitals throughout the country are, Bandundu, Bukavu, Goma, Kananga, Kindu, Kisangani, Lubumbashi, Matadi, Mbandaka, and Mbuji-Mayi. (Background Notes, 1)The climates within the DROC are very different due to the country being half to the north of the equator and half to the south. The northern portion of the country tends to be cold and dry, whereas the equatorial areas and southern half are hot and humid.DROC has great wealth of natural resource. Large copper deposits exist in the Shaba region, which also has reserves of cobalt, cadmium, uranium, tin, silver, and gold. (Lerner, 18) In-fact their main export commodities include cobalt, copper, crude oil, cut diamonds, gold, petroleum prodicts, synthetic lubricants, tea and coffee. (Mbendi Profile, 9)There are four major geographical regions in the country of DROC; these are the Congo River Basin, the Northern Uplands, the Eastern Highlands, and the Southern Uplands. The Congo River Basin covers about one third of the country reaching a vast 400,000 square miles across the country and is almost evenly divide by the equator. The Congo River Basin is also known as the Cuvette, which is French f...
