From a previous global estimate of 3,800 individuals, the estimated the global population of Grauer’s gorillas – the world’s largest gorilla subspecies – has almost doubled to 6,800 individuals.
In 2019, the Democratic Republic of Congo became one of the last countries in the world to offer free primary education. The new scheme has now permitted four million children to go to school tuition-free.
An international consortium led by Powergrids plans to invest $100 million in three off-grid solar plants intended to power the cities of Gemena, Bumba, and Isiro, which currently have no connection to the country’s power network.
Deforestation dropped 18% in two years in African countries where organizations subscribed to receive warnings from a new satellite service.
Felix Tshisekedi has been sworn in as the president of the DRC, in the vast central African country’s first transfer of power through an election in 59 years of independence.
Albert National Park opened in 1925, carving out protected wilderness across the volcanic highlands of the Belgian Congo — the first national park on the African continent. American naturalist Carl Akeley had lobbied hard for it after meeting mountain gorillas in the Virunga highlands, and was later buried within its boundaries. A fraught beginning, and an enduring one.
The Kingdom of Kongo took shape around 1390 C.E., when a young ruler named Lukeni lua Nimi wove marriages, alliances, and campaigns into a centralized state across Central Africa. Its capital, Mbanza Kongo, eventually held about 100,000 people. The kingdom endured nearly five centuries, leaving traces still alive in language and culture today.
Around 90,000 B.C.E., people near the Semliki River in central Africa carved barbed harpoon heads from bone — the oldest confirmed tools of their kind. The site’s catfish bones suggest planned, seasonal expeditions. These aren’t just ancient artifacts; they’re evidence that cumulative human culture was already underway in Africa.
