10 Things You Didn’t Know About Congo-Brazzaville
1.Congo is one of the most urbanized countries in Africa, with 70 percent of its total population living in the city.
2.The estimated literacy rate in Congo is 86 percent, one of the highest on the African continent. Schooling is free and compulsory for children aged 6-15.
3. Congo-Brazzaville is an active participant of Summer Olympics. Its athletes competed in the Olympic Games for the first time at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
4. Under a 2002 constitution, Congo is a democracy with a president as head of state. The president is popularly elected to a seven-year term.
5. In 2008, an enclave of more than 125,000 western lowland gorillas was found in the northern part of Congo. Researchers discovered the highest gorilla densities ever recorded, in some cases up to eight gorillas in areas smaller than half a square mile.
6. Potash is one of Congo-Brazzaville's principal mineral resources. It has been used since antiquity in the manufacture of glass and soap and as a fertilizer. The name comes from the English words pot and ash, referring to its discovery in the water-soluble fraction of wood ash.
7. Washington, DC is a sister city of Congo-Brazzaville.
8. Although French is the official language, most people speak regional dialects called Kongo/Kituba or Lingala.
9. The Congo Basin is the world's second largest tropical forest, encompassing a 700,000 square mile area. It plays a vital role in climate stability, acting as a carbon sink trapping carbon that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere - a leading cause of global climate change.
10. A 2007 partnership between the government of Congo-Brazzaville and UNICEF led to the distribution of more than 200,000 insecticide-treated bednets, which help to prevent malaria.