Republic of the Congo

The Republic of the Congo is a country in Africa.

The equator goes across it. It is hot and rainy. The capital city is Brazzaville.

The Republic of the Congo is a country in west-central Africa, crossed by the equator. People often call it Congo-Brazzaville, after its capital, so it is not mixed up with its big neighbor, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, across the Congo River.

It has a short coast on the Atlantic Ocean, low mountains and plateaus, and a huge swampy plain in the northeast. Much of the country is rainforest. About 6.5 million people lived there in 2025, and more than half live in cities, especially Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire.

Officially the Republic of the Congo, the country is often called Congo (Brazzaville) to distinguish it from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or Congo (Kinshasa). It is bounded by Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Angolan exclave of Cabinda and Gabon, and has a 160-km Atlantic coastline. The equator crosses the country just north of Liranga.

The country is sparsely inhabited overall but highly urbanized: the 2023 census counted 58.1 percent of people in Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire alone, according to a summary by the French Treasury. The World Bank counted 6,484,437 people in 2025. Petroleum production has been important to the economy since the 1970s. Denis Sassou-Nguesso is president, and French is the official language.

Brazzaville is the capital.

It is beside the big Congo River. Pointe-Noire is a city by the ocean. Huge forest parks are in the north.

Brazzaville, the capital and largest city, is a major river port in the southeast, on the Congo River. Pointe-Noire, the second city, is on the Atlantic coast, and a railway built in the 1920s and 1930s links the two. Brazzaville's Marien Ngouabi Museum shows masks from peoples across the Congo River basin.

In the north are two World Heritage Sites. Odzala-Kokoua National Park is one of Central Africa's most important strongholds for forest elephants. Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park is part of the Sangha Trinational, a giant rainforest park shared with Cameroon and the Central African Republic.

Brazzaville, in the southeast, is a major inland port on the Congo River; the 2023 census counted 2,145,783 people there and 1,420,612 in Pointe-Noire on the Atlantic coast. The Congo-Ocean Railway linking them was built between 1921 and 1934 with forced African labor, at a great cost in lives. Other towns include Nkayi in the Niari valley. Like most Congolese cities, they are largely colonial creations with an administrative and commercial core.

UNESCO inscribed the Forest Massif of Odzala-Kokoua in 2023: 1,179,376 ha where forest is recolonizing savanna, with more than 130 marshy clearings maintained by wildlife; it is one of Central Africa's most important forest-elephant strongholds and the park with the richest primate diversity in the region. Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park forms part of the Sangha Trinational (2012) with Lobéké in Cameroon and Dzanga-Ndoki in the Central African Republic. The Marien Ngouabi Museum in Brazzaville holds indigenous masks, especially of the Kongo people.

It is warm and wet all year.

Thick rainforest covers lots of the land. The big Congo River flows along the side. Many smaller rivers flow into it.

The Republic of the Congo is hot and humid, and it rains a lot: usually more than 1,200 millimeters a year, and often more than 2,000. North of the equator the rainy season runs from April to October, while in the south it is the other way around.

Along the coast is a flat plain, then the low Mayombé Mountains and the Niari valley. Plateaus cover the middle, and the northeast is a vast swampy plain that floods every year. The Congo River and the Ubangi form the eastern border.

Behind a 64-km-wide coastal plain rise the rugged Mayombé Massif (Mount Berongou, 903 m) and the 200-km-wide Niari valley, long a passage between the plateaus and the coast; beyond lie the Chaillu Massif, the Bembe and Batéké plateaus at about 490 m, and in the northeast a 155,000-km² swampy plain in the western Congo basin that floods annually. The Ubangi forms the eastern border down to Liranga, where it joins the Congo, which flows on to Malebo Pool; the Sangha, Likouala and Alima are among its tributaries. The Kouilou-Niari drains the coastal watershed for about 725 km.

The climate is tropical and humid (about 80 percent average humidity), with rainfall above 1,200 mm and often above 2,000 mm. North of the equator the rains fall from April to October, in the south the reverse; temperatures stay in the low to high 20s °C. Much of the country is tropical rainforest, although logging has cleared areas in the south.

Forest elephants splash in the swampy clearings.

Gorillas and chimpanzees live in the rainforest. Many kinds of monkeys live there too. Crocodiles swim in the Congo River.

The Republic of the Congo's rainforests are home to forest elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees and many kinds of monkeys. Crocodiles live in the Congo River, and eagles, hawks and herons are among its many birds.

About one-sixth of the country is protected. In Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, more than 300 kinds of birds live among more than 1,000 kinds of plants and trees. In Odzala-Kokoua, elephants and other animals keep open more than 130 marshy forest clearings, where many animals gather.

Britannica notes that some one-sixth of Congolese territory is protected; Nouabalé-Ndoki holds more than 300 bird and more than 1,000 plant and tree species, and Odzala-Kokoua is an important elephant and gorilla sanctuary. Forest wildlife includes monkeys, chimpanzees, gorillas, elephants and buffalo, crocodiles live in the Congo River, and venomous snakes include cobras and green mambas.

UNESCO describes Odzala-Kokoua's more than 130 marshy clearings, kept open by wildlife, as vital nutrient hubs that shape the movements of forest elephants, themselves key drivers of forest dynamics. In the Sangha Trinational, forest clearings attract large gatherings of wildlife, and the property holds viable populations of forest elephants, critically endangered western lowland gorillas and endangered chimpanzees, as well as Nile crocodiles and the goliath tigerfish.

About 6.5 million people live here.

Most people live in two big cities. French is the official language. Football is a very popular sport.

The country has four main cultural regions. The Kongo peoples live in the south between Brazzaville and the coast, the Teke on the Batéké Plateau, the Ubangi peoples in the Congo River basin in the north, and the Binga and Sanga peoples in the northern forests. French is the official language.

Most people live in the southwest, and nearly six out of ten live in Brazzaville or Pointe-Noire. The country is young: the average age was 23 in 2023. Football is very popular, and the national team, the Red Devils, won the African Cup of Nations in 1972.

Britannica describes four main cultural regions formed through contact and exchange: Kongo peoples in the south between Brazzaville and the coast, the Teke on the Batéké Plateau, Ubangi peoples in the basin west of Mossaka, and the Binga and Sanga scattered through the northern basin. Precolonial trade linked north and south, while French favoritism toward the southwest and postindependence politics deepened regional rivalries; migration to the cities has carried these divisions into urban life.

Population is concentrated in the southwest, and the 2023 census (summarized by the French Treasury) found an average age of 23 and a density of almost 18 people per km². Holidays include Christian festivals and Independence Day on August 15. Football is very popular: the Diables Rouges won the first African Games tournament at home in 1965 and the African Cup of Nations in 1972, and Congo first competed at the Olympics in 1964.