Congo Departments

The Republic of the Congo, the country around Brazzaville, is not the larger Congo across the river. Nearly everyone in it lives in the south, in the two cities and along the railway between them and the coast, while the north is rainforest and swamp along the Sangha and Likouala rivers. Its 12 departments are the tier the government, the census and the news are organised around, and the map is a handful of small southern departments beneath a few large northern ones.

The quiz: Name to place, on the map
Grouped by: The south, the centre and the north
In the game: 12 departments

Start

What you are looking at

The 12 departments, named in their usual English spelling. Ten are departments in the ordinary sense. The other two are the cities of Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire, which are communes with the rank of a department of their own. Brazzaville, the capital, sits on the Congo river across from Kinshasa, and Pointe-Noire, the economic capital, is a small patch on the Atlantic coast, so small that the game gives it a larger area to tap.

The groups are a way to learn the map a piece at a time, and not an administrative level. The south holds the two cities and the departments along the railway, the centre is the plateaux and the basin, and the north is the two forested departments against Cameroon and the Central African Republic.

How to place one

Start on the coast. Pointe-Noire is the small patch on the Atlantic, with Kouilou around it and Niari running inland.
Follow the railway north. Bouenza, Pool and Brazzaville line the route to the capital, with Lékoumou against Gabon.
Cross to the centre. Plateaux sits north of Pool, with Cuvette-Ouest and Cuvette above it.
Finish in the forest. Sangha in the northwest and Likouala in the northeast are the two largest departments.

Every department, by group

South7 departments: Bouenza, Brazzaville, Kouilou, Lékoumou, Niari, Pointe-Noire, Pool
Centre3 departments: Cuvette, Cuvette-Ouest, Plateaux
North2 departments: Likouala, Sangha

Worked examples

Brazzaville

The capital

Brazzaville is a department of its own, on the north bank of the Congo river at the end of the Pool, facing Kinshasa across the water.

Pointe-Noire

The smallest

Pointe-Noire is a tiny coastal patch inside Kouilou, and the country's main port.

Likouala

The largest

Likouala fills the northeast corner against the Central African Republic, and is a flooded forest more than it is a place with roads.

Frequently asked questions

How many departments does the Republic of the Congo have?

Twelve. Ten are departments, and Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire are communes with the rank of a department.

Is this the same country as the DR Congo?

No. The Republic of the Congo is the smaller country on the west bank of the Congo river, with Brazzaville as its capital. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is across the river, with Kinshasa.