<Tr> <Th> ISO 3166 code </Th> <Td> CD </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Internet TLD </Th> <Td>. cd </Td> </Tr> <P> The Democratic Republic of the Congo (/ ˈkɒŋɡoʊ /; French pronunciation: ​ (kɔ̃ɡo); French: République démocratique du Congo), also known as Zaire, DR Congo, East Congo, DRC, DROC, Congo - Kinshasa or simply the Congo, is a country located in Central Africa . The DRC borders the Central African Republic and South Sudan to the north; Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania to the east; Zambia and Angola to the south; the Republic of the Congo to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the southwest . It is the second - largest country in Africa (largest in Sub-Saharan Africa) by area and eleventh largest in the world . With a population of over 80 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most populated officially Francophone country, the fourth most - populated nation in Africa and the seventeenth most populated country in the world . </P> <P> The territory of the DR Congo was first settled by humans around 90,000 years ago . Bantu peoples began migrating into the region in the 5th century and again in the 10th century . In the West of the region, the Kingdom of Kongo ruled from the 14th to 19th centuries, while in the centre and East of the region, the kingdoms of Luba and Lunda ruled from the 16th and 17th centuries to the 19th century . In the 1870s, just before the onset of the Scramble for Africa, European exploration of the Congo was carried out, first led by Henry Morton Stanley under the sponsorship of King Leopold II of Belgium . Leopold formally acquired rights to the Congo territory at the Conference of Berlin in 1885 and made the land his private property, naming it the Congo Free State . During the Free State, the colonial military unit, the Force Publique, forced the local population into producing rubber, and from 1885 to 1908, millions of Congolese died as a consequence of disease and exploitation . In 1908 Belgium, despite initial reluctance, formally annexed the Free State from Leopold, which became the Belgian Congo . </P>

Where is democratic republic of congo located on the world map