Congo

Astride the Equator in west central Africa, Congo has a small population that is concentrated in the country’s southwest, with a virtually uninhabited jungle in the north. Most people live between Brazzaville, the capital, and Pointe-Noire, Congo’s port city and focus for the oil industry. Since it achieved independence in 1960, political turmoil has hampered the country. After almost three decades of Marxist rule, Congo adopted a multiparty, democratic system in 1992. Conflict in the late 1990s derailed democracy, but a new constitution in 2002 brings the promise of stability.