At a Glance:

Website of the DRC Mission to the UN

Current constitution [French] in force since: 2006

Constituent units: 25 provinces plus the capital, Kinshasa

Head of State: President

Head of Government: Prime Minister

Legislature:
Upper House: Senate [French]

 

Democratic Republic
of the Congo

Federalism in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

CongoThe constitution of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is silent on whether the country is federal. Strong elements of federalism can be found however in the division of powers between the DRC’s central government and its 26 inprovinces the process of establishing federalism, with 26 which provinces have been allocated possessing separate powers competencies from those of the central government; and in the administrative autonomy of the provinces. The structure was agreed upon by the framers of the 2005 Constitution.

This central African country has 250 ethnic groups, the largest being the Luba, Mongo and Kongo. The official languages are French, Lingala, Swahili, Kikongo and Tshiluba.

After resisting colonization for centuries, the country was annexed by King Leopold II of Belgium in 1877 and remained a Belgian colony until independence in 1960. After democratic elections, the first prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, was murdered by agents of the Belgian government, which apologized for its act in 2002. A period of unrest followed which saw the temporary secession of the mineral-rich province of Katanga, and the country came under the rule of Mobutu Sese Seko in 1965. Mobuto, who renamed the country Zaire, was deposed in 1997 by a coalition of rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda. Laurent Kabila was made president, and he renamed the country Democratic Republic of the Congo. Joseph Kabila became president in 2001 when his father, Laurent Kabila, was killed by a bodyguard.