1. PRESENTATION of
CONGO

2. THE MAP OF CONGO The Congo is in the center Africa, limited
.in North by Cameroon & the Central African Republic
.to the east by the Democratic Republic of Congo which is formerly Zaire,
.the south by Anglola
.in the Southwest  there's the Gulf of Guinea Equatorial
.& west by Gabon.
 it consists of the equatorial forest,  a rich savanna, large rivers rich in fish. the legendary Congo River is the second most powerful river in the world after the Amazon which separates the two closest capital in the world Brazzaville & Kinshasa

3. CONGOLESE FLAG Nature of the country Natural ressource
Freedom struggle

4. GEOGRAPHIC DATA . Area: 342.000 km² . Capital: Brazzaville
Location: Central Africa
. Area: km²
. Capital: Brazzaville
. Principal cities: Pointe-Noire, Nkayi, Loubomo, Ouesso, Owando, Dolisie, Mossendjo
. Official Language: French
. Independence day: 15 August 1960

5. DEMOGRAPHIC DATA 1-Population: 4 243 929 h. 2-DensitY: 12 h./km²
3-Main ethnic group: Kongo, Téké, Mbochi, Oubanguiens, Nzebi, Sangha
4-Development: +1,77%
5-Life expectancy : 55,8 ans
6-literacy rate : 81,1%
7-Religion: Christianism, Animism & Islam

6. ECONOMIC
Congo is a developing country included in the Initiative heavily in debt poor countries ,That point was reached in January 2010, with the approval of the World Bank & the International Monetary Funds
.Congolese economy remain mainly on the exploitation of hydrocarbons along the Atlantic coast, this activity represents approximately 90 % of exports of the country.

7. The oil exploration & the production, concentrated in the periphery of Pointe-noire make of it the economic capital of the country.
Wood represents a significant part of the exportation of Congo, whose surface is covered with forests with nearly 60 %, for a total of 21 million hectares.

8. AGRICULTURE
Most of the agricultural production (manioc, fruit & vegetables) is consumed locally; nevertheless, the agricultural Company & industrial refining of sugar (SARIS), established in Nkayi in Bouenza markets its products in other countries of central Africa.
- Agricultural working population (2004) = 37.32%

9. Production of cereals in thousands of tons =9 (2004)
The agricultural congolese production is primarily: the Cassava, the Yam, Sweet potato, Banana, Corn, Rice, sorghum & the millet, the groundnut, the bean, the nut of palm, cotton, the cane has sugar, the cocoa, the coffee, the tea, the tobacco .

11. CONGOLESE FOOD

13. Cultures & Ethnicity
Four major ethnic groups make up about 95 % of the country's population;
These groups speak distinct primary languages, & are concentrated regionally outside of urban areas.
The largest ethnic group is the Kongo, who constitute the main ethnic group in the southern part of the country & about half the country's population.
Within the Kongo group are various subgroups, including the Lari & the Vili.
Other major ethnic groups include the Teke of the central region, with about 13 % of the population, & the Mbochi of the northern region, with about 12 % of the population.

14. SOME
CONGO PICTURE
Monument & landscape

15. Memorial Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza

16. Boulevard Alfred Raoul (Brazzaville )

18. Pointe-Noire beach

19. score of Pointe-Noire

20. Sunset at
Pointe-Noire

21. Kouilou river

22. Niari river

23. Congo river

26. Mémorial Pierre Savorgnan de Brazzaville

27. Constitutionnal court
Of Brazzaville

28. Ministry of Planning & Land Management

29. Nabemba tower office building Completed in 1986

30. Roundabout instead of June 5, symbol vestige of the civil war of 1997

31. Founder of MSA (Mouvement Socialiste Africain) in 1960
Jacques Opagault
Founder of MSA (Mouvement Socialiste Africain) in 1960

34. Nanga lake, near Pointe-Noire

35. Total marcket of Brazzaville

36. Restaurant Abri Côtier at Pointe Noire

37. Politics & Civil Strife
Denis Sassou-Nguesso is a Congolese politician born on November 23, 1943 in Edou.
One of Africa's longest-serving leaders, having first come to power three decades ago.
He was installed as president by the military in 1979 & lost his position in the country's first multi-party elections in 1992.
He returned to power in 1997 after a brief but bloody civil war in which he was backed by Angolan troops.
He gained his latest seven-year term after elections in March 2016.

38. CONGOLESE PRESIDENTS (1961 A 1969) Alphonse MASSAMBAT-BEBAT
( )
Abbé Fulbert YOULOU
( )
Augustin PEIGNEL )

39. CONGOLESE FROM 1969 TILL TODAY Joachim YHOMBI-OPANGO
( )
Marien NGOUABI
( )
Dénis SASSOU-NGUESSO (
1997- up to now)
Pascal LISSOUMBA
( )

40. Timeline of Political Instability
1400s - Bakongo, Bateke & Sanga ethnic groups arrive in what is now the Republic of Congo.
1482 - Portuguese navigator Diogo Cao explores the coastal areas.
French rule
1880 - French explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza negotiates an agreement with the Bateke to establish a French protectorate over the north bank of the Congo river.
1907 - France restricts the role of concessionaires following widespread outrage at revelations of the brutalities of forced labour.
1910 - Middle Congo, as it was known then, becomes a colony of French Equatorial Africa.
1928 - African revolt over renewed forced labour & other abuses carried out in the course of building the Congo-Ocean railway, which resulted in the death of more than 17,000 Africans.
1946 - Congo given a territorial assembly & representation in the French parliament.
1958 - Congolese vote for autonomy within the French Community.

41. Independence
1960 - Congo becomes independent with Fulbert Youlou as president.
1963 - Fulbert Youlou forced to resign following workers' unrest; Alphonse Massamba-Debat becomes president & Pascal Lissouba prime minister.
1964 - Massamba-Debat sets up the National Revolutionary Movement as the sole party & proclaims a non-capitalist path of economic development.
1968 - Massamba-Debat ousted in a coup led by Marien Ngouabi, who continues his predecessor's commitment to socialism but sets up his own party, the Congolese Workers Party (PCT).
1970 - President Ngouabi proclaims Congo a Marxist People's Republic with the PCT as the sole legitimate party.
1977 - Ngouabi is assassinated. Massamba-Debat & the Archbishop of Brazzaville, Emile Cardinal Biayenda, are killed shortly afterwards.
Joachim Yhombi-Opango becomes president.
1979 - Joachim Yhombi-Opango hands over the presidency to the PCT, which chooses Denis Sassou-Nguesso as his successor.
1981 - Congo signs treaty of friendship & cooperation with the Soviet Union.
1990 - The PCT abandons Marxism.
1992 - Voters approve a constitution which establishes a multi-party system.
Pascal Lissouba becomes president in Congo's first democratic election.

42. Civil strife
1993 - Bloody fighting between Gvt & opposition forces over disputed parliamentary elections.
 - Ceasefire between Gvt & opposition established; opposition given Gvt posts.
1997 5 June - Full-scale civil war breaks out; pro-Sassou Nguesso forces, aided by Angolan troops, capture Brazzaville, forcing Lissouba to flee.
The civil war began when Lissouba's forces surrounded Sassou-Nguesso's home in June 1997, in an apparent attempt to eliminate his political-military faction.
The Gvt claimed that the action was a police operation aimed at arresting criminal suspects. The violence evolved into a civil war in the capital.
There were also clashes in the north, including the cities of Impfondo, Ouesso, Owando, &, briefly at the end of 1997, in Pointe Noire.

43. Civil War & Ethnicity Interface
There were ethnic overtones to both the 1997 civil war & the post 2002 violence in Brazzaville & other areas in the southern Congo.
The conflicts have sometimes pitted northerners (Mbochi), who support President Sassou against southerners, (Nibolek) who support former president Lissouba & (Lari) for former prime minister Kolelas.
Atrocities
During the war, Lissouba forces repeatedly used helicopters piloted by foreign mercenaries to bomb areas controlled by Sassou-Nguesso's Cobra militia forces, resulting in the deaths of many civilians as well as combatants.
Gvt soldiers & the militias that supported them, as well as the opposition militias, engaged in widespread extortion & harassment of civilians.
Opposition militias killed, beat, & detained persons because of their ethnicity.
Both sides, particularly the Gvt, targeted densely populated areas with heavy shells & rockets.
Soldiers & militias engaged in heavy looting throughout the capital, causing great property damage. As a result of the violence, thousands of persons, most of them civilians, were killed in Brazzaville, & hundreds of thousands were displaced.
13,929–25,050 total deaths.
Over 200,000 internally displaced and 6,000 foreign refugees

44. External Support
Angola also sided with Nguessou for a double reason. First of all Elf is also the main company exploiting the oil resources of Angola, but most important of all Angola's intervention in Congo allowed it to smash a great deal of the remaining UNITA forces still operating from this country againts the Angolan regime. And at the same time it dealt a serious blow to the Cabinda nationalist guerrillas also operating from Congo-Brazzaville. Angola's troops were crucial to ensure Nguessou's victory in the Western province around Pointe-Noire (the main oil producing area) and in the capital Brazzaville itself.
Kabila's new Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire) sided in this war with Pascal Lissouba. This could seem surprising as this put him in opposition to Angola, while this country supported his campaign to overthrow Mobutu in the former Zaire. This can only be understood in the context of the French-US rivalry in Africa. Mobutu's overthrow was a blow againts French interests in the area, while Kabila was supported by those countries in the US sphere of influence (mainly Uganda and Rwuanda). Kabila therefore chose to oppose France's interests in this conflict.

46. End of Civil War & Peace
1997 Oct - Sassou-Nguesso forces defeated Gvt & militia troops loyal to President Lissouba, & established a new Gvt.
Shortly thereafter, the Sassou Gvt suspended the constitution.
His Cobra militia conducted house-to-house searches in Brazzaville killing members of the defeated Gvt security forces, private militias, & Lissouba's political followers.
The Cobras also engaged in large-scale looting after their victory. After the war, the victorious Sassou Gvt's militias continued to apprehend & kill many of its political opponents.
1999 - Gvt & rebels sign a peace deal in Zambia providing for a national dialogue, demilitarisation of political parties & the re-admission of rebels into the security forces.
2001 Apr - Peace conference ends by adopting a new constitution, paving the way for presidential & parliamentary elections.
2001 Sept - Transitional parliament adopts a draft constitution. Some 15,000 militia disarm in a cash-for-weapons scheme. IMF starts clearing Congo's $4bn debt.
2001 Dec - Pascal Lissouba, convicted in absentia on treason & corruption charges, & sentenced to 30 years' hard labour by the high court in Brazzaville.
2002 Jan - About 80% of voters in constitutional referendum approve amendments aimed at consolidating presidential powers.
2002 Mar - Denis Sassou Nguesso wins presidential elections unopposed after his main rivals are barred from the contest.

47. Clashes with rebels
2002 Mar- Intense fighting between Gvt & "Ninja" rebels drives thousands of civilians from their homes in Pool region. The rebels, loyal to former PM Bernard Kolelas & led by renegade priest Pastor Ntumi, name themselves after the famous Japanese warriors.
2002 Jun - Gvt troops battle Ninja rebels in Brazzaville. About 100 people are killed.
2003 Mar - Gvt signs deals with Ninja rebels aimed at ending fighting in Pool region. Ninja leader Pastor Ntumi agrees to end hostilities & allow the return of the rule of law.
2004 Jun - World diamond trade watchdog removes Congo from list of countries recognised as dealing legitimately in diamonds.
2005 April - Gvt says a group of army officers, arrested in January over an arms theft, had been planning a coup.
2005 Oct - Former PM Bernard Kolelas is allowed home to bury his wife after eight years in exile, during which he was sentenced to death on war crimes charges. He is given an amnesty in November.
2006 January - Congo is chosen to lead the African Union in 2006 after disagreements within the body about Sudan's leadership bid.
President Sassou Nguesso accuses France of interfering in his country's affairs, following a decision by a French appeal court to reopen an investigation into the disappearance of more than 350 refugees in 1999.
2007 June - Former "Ninja" rebels led by renegade Pastor Frederic Ntumi ceremoniously burn their weapons to demonstrate their commitment to peace.
2007 Jun-Aug - Parliamentary elections, boycotted by some 40 parties. Ruling party wins 90% of seats.

48. Corruption
2007 November - London Club of private sector creditors cancels 80% of Congo's debt.
2009 May - French magistrate opens probe into alleged embezzlement by President Sassou Nguesso & two other African leaders following lawsuit by an anti-corruption group.
2009 July - President Denis Sassou Nguesso gains another seven years in power following elections boycotted by the opposition.
2010 March - Paris Club of creditor countries & Brazil agree to cancel all the debt owed to them by Congo - about $2.4 billion.
2010 November - French appeal court gives go-ahead for probe into corruption charges against three African leaders, including President Denis Sassou Nguesso.
2012 March - An ammunition dump in Brazzaville explodes, killing 282 people & injuring more than 2,300.
2013 February - Congo declared to be compliant with standards set by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative for the disclosure of revenues from oil.
2013 May - Brazil says it will cancel or restructure $900m of debt with Africa, including Congo, which has the highest debt with Brazil.
2014 May - UN says the repatriation of 130,000 DR Congo nationals from Republic of Congo over past month has caused a humanitarian crisis.

49. Constitution referendum
2015 October - Voters in referendum approve constitutional changes allowing the president to run for a third term. The opposition boycotts the vote & says the result is fraudulent.
2016 March - President Denis Sassou Nguesso gains another term following an election described as fraudulent by the opposition.
2016 April - Gvt buildings in Brazzaville are attacked in post-election unrest.

50. Sources David E. Cunningham - Barriers to Peace in Civil War Cassie Knight - Brazzaville Charms: Magic and Rebellion in the Republic of Congo