POLITICS
- Conventional Long Form Name of country: Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Capital City: Kinshasa
- Type of Government: republic
- Date of Independence: 30 June 1960
- National Holiday(s): Independence Day, 30 June
Chief of State: President Joseph Kabila
Head of Government: Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo Mapon
- Description of Executive Branch/Powers: Chief of State, Head of Government, Ministers of State appointed by President
- Description of Legislative Branch/Powers: bicameral legislature consists of a Senate (108 seats; members elected by provincial assemblies to serve five-year terms) and a National Assembly (500 seats; 61 members elected by majority vote in single-member constituencies, 439 members elected by open list proportional-representation in multi-member constituencies to serve five-year terms)
- Description of Judicial Branch/Powers: Supreme Court of Justice, Constitutional Court, State Security Court; Court of Appeals (organized into administrative and judiciary sections); Tribunal de Grande; magistrates' courts; customary courts
- Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal and compulsory
- DRC Ambassador to the US: Faida Maramuke Mitifu
- DRC embassy in the US: Suite 601, 1726 M Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20036
- DRC consulate(s) in the US: New York
- US Ambassador to DRC: James C. Swan
- US embassy in DRC: 310 Avenue des Aviateurs, Kinshasa
- US consulate(s) in DRC: N/A
- DRC representative to UN: Ignace Gata Mavita wa Lufuta
sky blue field divided diagonally from the lower hoist corner to upper fly corner by a red stripe bordered by two narrow yellow stripes; a yellow, five-pointed star appears in the upper hoist corner; blue represents peace and hope, red the blood of the country's martyrs, and yellow the country's wealth and prosperity; the star symbolizes unity and the brilliant future for the country
- National Symbol(s): Leopard
- Descriptions of International Disputes: heads of the Great Lakes states and UN pledged in 2004 to abate tribal, rebel, and militia fighting in the region, including northeast Congo, where the UN Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC), organized in 1999, maintains over 16,500 uniformed peacekeepers; members of Uganda's Lords Resistance Army forces continue to seek refuge in Congo's Garamba National Park as peace talks with the Uganda government evolve; the location of the boundary in the broad Congo River with the Republic of the Congo is indefinite except in the Pool Malebo/Stanley Pool area; Uganda and DRC dispute Rukwanzi Island in Lake Albert and other areas on the Semliki River with hydrocarbon potential; boundary commission continues discussions over Congolese-administered triangle of land on the right bank of the Lunkinda River claimed by Zambia near the DRC village of Pweto; DRC accuses Angola of shifting monuments
- Quantity of refugees inside country and country(ies) of origin of refugees: 50,736 (Rwanda); 9,368 (Burundi); 47,000 (Central African Republic)
- Quantity of Internally Displaced Persons: 2,669,069
- Quantity of Stateless Persons: N/A
- Description of current human trafficking issues related to this country: Democratic Republic of the Congo is a source, destination, and possibly a transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. It is a tier 3, meaning it does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so
- Description of Illicit Drug trafficking/use: one of Africa's biggest producers of cannabis, but mostly for domestic consumption; traffickers exploit lax shipping controls to transit pseudoephedrine through the capital; while rampant corruption and inadequate supervision leaves the banking system vulnerable to money laundering, the lack of a well-developed financial system limits the country's utility as a money-laundering center