DR Congo country profile
The recent history of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) has been one of civil war and corruption.
It is rich in natural resources but has suffered from political instability, a lack of infrastructure, centuries of both commercial and colonial exploitation, and little widespread development since independence.
During the two Congo wars, from 1996-2003 the country was at the centre of what some observers call "Africa's world war", with widespread civilian suffering. The war claimed an up to six million lives, either as a direct result of fighting or because of disease and malnutrition.
Since the late-2000s, there has been continued fighting in the east, which has seen the deployment of UN and SADC peacekeepers to support Kinshasa.
Read more country profiles - Profiles by BBC Monitoring
Capital: Kinshasa
Area: 2,345,409 sq km
Population: 111 million
Languages: French, Kituba, Lingala, Swahili, Tshiluba
Life expectancy: 59 years (men) 62 years (women)
President: Félix Tshisekedi
President Félix Tshisekedi won a second term in the December 2023 elections, which was condemned as a "sham" by several opposition candidates.
The president won about 73% of the vote, with his nearest challenger, Moise Katumbi, on 18%, officials said. The election was marred by widespread logistical problems. It had to be extended to a second day in some parts of the country.
About two-thirds of polling stations opened late, while 30% of voting machines did not work on the first day of the vote, according to an observer group.
The opposition said the problems were part of a deliberate plan to allow the results to be rigged in favour of Mr Tshisekedi, 60.
Mr Tshisekedi became president in January 2019 after protracted political wrangling in the wake of a controversial election in December 2018. He succeeded Joseph Kabila, who had become president when his own father Laurent was assassinated in 2001.
President Tshisekedi also comes from a political dynasty, as his father Étienne was opposition leader and later prime minister under the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in the 1980s and 1990s.
The Congolese media operate against a backdrop of political power struggles and unrest.
Reporters Without Borders says journalists face arrest, threats and violence.
The press carries criticism of the government, and some publications reflect opposition party views.
Radio is the leading medium. Radio Okapi, partly run by the local UN mission, is an influential outlet.
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Some key dates in DR Congo's history:
1200s - Rise of Kongo Empire, centred in modern northern Angola and including extreme western Congo and territories round lakes Kisale and Upemba in central Katanga (now Shaba).
16th-17th Centuries - British, Dutch, Portuguese and French merchants engage in slave trade through Kongo intermediaries.
1870s - Belgian King Leopold II sets up a private venture to colonise Kongo.
1884-85 - European powers at the Conference of Berlin recognise Leopold's claim to the Congo basin. Leopold announces the establishment of the Congo Free State, headed by himself.
1908 - Belgian state annexes Congo amid protests over killings and atrocities carried out on a mass scale by Leopold's agents. Millions of Congolese are said to have been killed or worked to death during Leopold's control of the territory.
1959 - Belgium begins to lose control over events in the Congo following serious nationalist riots in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa).
1960 - Congo becomes independent with Patrice Lumumba as prime minister and Joseph Kasavubu as president.
1960 July - Congolese army mutinies; Moise Tshombe declares Katanga independent; Belgian troops sent in ostensibly to protect Belgian citizens and mining interests; UN Security Council votes to send in troops to help establish order, but the troops are not allowed to intervene in internal affairs.
1961 - Patrice Lumumba murdered, reportedly with US and Belgian complicity.
1963 - Moise Tshombe agrees to end Katanga's secession.
1965 - Mobutu Sese Seko seizes power.
1971 - Country is renamed Zaire.
1977 - French and Belgian paratroops, alongside Moroccan forces, help repulse attack on Katanga by Angolan-based rebels.
1996-97 - First Congo War. A civil war and international military conflict, which culminates in a rebel invasion replacing President Mobutu with the rebel leader Laurent Kabila. The country is renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
1998-2003 - Second Congo War. Kabila's unstable government comes into conflict with his allies, setting the stage for a renewed civil war, drawing in several neighbouring countries. Dozens of armed groups fight on in the east, requiring a large United Nations military force to try to maintain order. An estimated 900,000 to 5,400,000 people are killed or die of disease or famine.
2004 - Kivu conflict breaks out in eastern DRC. The series of protracted armed conflicts in the area involves more than 120 different armed groups.
2006 - First free elections in four decades. Joseph Kabila wins the run-off vote.
2012-13 - M23 rebellion. The rebel March 23 Movement is formed. A UN report finds that Rwanda created and commanded the M23 rebel group.
2013 - 3,000-strong UN Intervention Brigade deployed to fight and disarm M23 rebels in the east.
2016 - President Kabila remains in power in violation of the constitution.
2017 - M23 rebels resume their insurgency.
2019 - Officials declare opposition candidate Felix Tshisekedi the winner of December's presidential election.
2022 - DR Congo, UN, US and others accuse Rwanda of sending its soldiers to fight alongside M23 rebels in eastern DRC, who are accused of carrying out war crimes. Rwanda denies this.
2023 - President Tshisekedi wins a second term in a disputed election. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) deploys a 2,900-strong peacekeeping force in the east.
2025 - After a rapid advance, M23 rebels capture the city of Goma in eastern DRC and threaten to move on Kinshasa.
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Domestic outages may see Tehran turning to international liquefied natural gas supplies to meet its needs. For its retaliatory measures, many ponder if Iran could shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a key maritime artery for oil and liquefied natural gas shipments from the Persian Gulf out to the Gulf of Oman and beyond (see map below). Cargo volumes lend relevance to such discussions. Iran's own shipments, plus that of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, and to an extent United Arab Emirates' crude - roughly equating to 30% of the world's traded oil - as well as Qatar's LNG cargoes pass through the Strait daily. Strait of Hormuz, a waterway between Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, a strategically extremely ... More important choke point, with Iran to the north and UAE and Oman's exclave Musandam to the south. While Iranians could certainly can attempt to close the Strait, they most probably won't, despite junior Iranian political voices currently calling for it. For starters, it would disrupt Iran's own oil shipments. Furthermore, a U.S.-led global retaliation may likely follow that would leave Iran's own coastline and all its ports vulnerable to a vastly superior American air and naval strike arsenal. Nearby Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet. Any disruption would also irk Iran's number crude oil customer - China. Iran exported on average 1.65 million bpd of oil to China last year. Furthermore, nearly half of crude oil passing through the Strait - whether Iranian or not - in the region of 20.5 million bpd also heads to China. A potential blockade would be very difficult to maintain under pressure from Beijing, the world's main taker of Middle Eastern oil. In an attempt to drag the U.S. into the conflict, Iran may either directly or via its regional proxies in Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, West Bank and Gaza, attack the energy infrastructure of neighboring Gulf states. This has alleged precedent, for in the past Iran has been accused of targeting Saudi Arabia's oil fields (2019) and an attack in the UAE (2022). While the route of direct attacks remains open to Iran, its regional proxies Hamas and Hezbollah are severely diminished at the moment courtesy of Israel's sustained campaign against them. However, the Houthi Rebels in Yemen - the last standing Iranian proxy ally - remain in a position to ramp up their attacks on commercial shipping, and oil and gas cargoes in the Red Sea - a campaign that began in 2023. Sidestepping energy infrastructure, on Saturday, Iranian officials also warned that the country would attack the military bases of the U.S., U.K. and France in the region, if they are seen to be coming to Israel's defense. All three nations have also have special forces camps and large diplomatic missions in the Gulf. Such a scenario is being widely contemplated in intelligence circles, with U.S. regional forces closely monitoring the situation and the U.K. opting to send more military aircraft to its bases 'for contingency support across the region.' Any such escalation will likely trigger a wider regional war, and prolonged disruption to oil cargoes will likely draw China into a diplomatic row too. As things stand, should one or more of the above scenarios, especially an attack on Iran's Kharg Terminal, materialize during the Israel-Iran strikes, there could be serious near-term ramifications for the global oil and gas markets.
