Republic of the Congo - country.

« rate of 50 CFA francs equal to 1 French franc was in force from 1948 to 1994, when the CFA franc was devalued by 50 percent.

The leading commercial banks are theBanque Internationale du Congo and the Union Congolaise de Banques. E Foreign Trade In 2000 imports cost $930 million and exports earned $2.09 billion.

The Congo engages in considerable trade with the nearby countries of Cameroon, the CentralAfrican Republic, and Gabon, with which it is joined in the Customs and Economic Union of Central Africa.

The country also has extensive commercial ties with France,the United States, and Italy. F Transportation and Communications Although broken by rapids, the Congo River and its tributaries provide a major and highly developed transportation network.

The Congo-Ocean Railroad (510 km/317mi) links Brazzaville to Pointe-Noire; a 286-km (178-mi) spur links the line to Moanda, Gabon.

Only a small percentage of the 17,289 km (10,743 mi) of roads arepaved.

The road network is densest in the south.

International airports serve Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire. There are 6 daily newspapers published in the Congo.

The government radio station broadcasts from Brazzaville, and a national television network began transmission in1963.

In 1997 there were an estimated 126 radio receivers and 13 television sets for every 1,000 people.

There were 4 telephone mainlines per 1,000 people in 2004. V GOVERNMENT Under a 2002 constitution, the Congo is a democracy with a president as head of state.

The president is popularly elected to a seven-year term.

The president appointsa cabinet of ministers.

Legislative power is vested in a 137-seat National Assembly and a 66-seat Senate. VI HISTORY Some of the Bantu peoples in the Congo have been here since before AD 1000.

When Diogo Cam, the first European explorer of the area, reached the Congo River in 1482, he found two large empires.

The kingdom of Loango extended north and east from the river, and that of the Bakongo controlled the land near the mouth of theCongo River southward to the Cuanza River.

Eventually, Portuguese imperialism and the slave trade destroyed the Bakongo’s empire and severely damaged that of theLoango.

Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza of France explored the area in 1879 and 1880.

He signed treaties with local rulers, placing the territory under French protection.The region became known as the Middle Congo, which in 1910 became one of the colonies federated into French Equatorial Africa.

Brazzaville, the chief city of theMiddle Congo, became the seat of government for the federation.

After many attempts following World War II (1939-1945) to bind its African territories into ameaningful association, France began to grant them independence.

The Middle Congo became an independent functioning republic in 1960 called Republic of the Congo. Politics after independence were unstable; each disturbance made the government more radical.

The first premier, Fulbert Youlou, outlawed all opposition but wasoverthrown in 1963.

He was replaced by Alphonse Massamba-Débat and the National Revolutionary Movement; he secured good relations with Communist statesthroughout the world, especially the People’s Republic of China.

In 1968 a coup organized by the army and more militant leftists overthrew Massamba-Débat andinstalled Marien Ngouabi as head of state.

During the nine years of Ngouabi’s rule the Congo became even more of a Marxist country.

In 1970, under a revolutionaryconstitution, the name of the nation was changed to People’s Republic of the Congo.

Ngouabi was assassinated in 1977, and his place was assumed by General JoachimYhombi-Opango.

Despite its good relations with the Communist world, the Congo’s closest ties and much of its trade remained with France. In 1979 Colonel Denis Sassou-Nguesso succeeded Yhombi-Opango as president; a treaty of cooperation and friendship was signed with the Union of Soviet SocialistRepublics (USSR) in 1981.

Reelected to the presidency in 1984 and 1989, Sassou-Nguesso faced rising opposition as the 1990s began.

A national conference that washeld in 1991 and 1992 changed the country’s name back to Republic of the Congo, introduced a new national flag and anthem, and approved a new constitution tomake the Congo a multiparty democracy.

Pascal Lissouba defeated Sassou-Nguesso in the presidential election of August 1992.

Accusations of ethnic favoritism plaguedLissouba during the mid-1990s.

Armed factions arose in opposition to his rule, with many Congolese rallying behind Sassou-Nguesso.

In 1997 heavy fighting erupted inBrazzaville, destroying much of the city.

In October of that year Sassou-Nguesso overthrew Lissouba with military assistance from Angola.

Lissouba and his primeminister, Bernard Kolelas, fled the country.

Factions loyal to the former leaders rose up to challenge Sassou-Nguesso, and the Congo descended into civil war.

Some10,000 Congolese died in the fighting, and hundreds of thousands were displaced. Sassou-Nguesso oversaw the signing of a peace accord with the rival militias in 1999, offering an amnesty to participants in the civil war.

The amnesty notably excludedLissouba and Kolelas, who remained in exile.

In 2000 and 2001 Lissouba and Kolelas were tried and convicted in absentia for treason and war crimes. A new constitution was approved by public referendum in 2002.

In presidential elections held in March, Sassou-Nguesso was elected to a seven-year term.

Lissouba andKolelas were prevented from running for president by a residency law, and international observers criticized the elections for their lack of competition.

In parliamentaryelections in 2007, Sassou-Nguesso’s Congolese Labor Party won 124 of the 137 seats in the National Assembly.

The main opposition party, the Pan-African Union forSocial Democracy headed by Lissouba, who was still in exile in London, England, won 10 seats. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation.

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