Talk:Democratic Republic of the Congo

Rubbish

Wildly inaccurate and misleading geography. Look at a map. The DRC stretches over 1100 miles North to South on its Western side. There is no reason I can think of to base the geographic description of the country on the small "arm" or "tail" which reaches to the Atlantic. (if there is a geographic term for this 'protrusion', I am not aware of it.) The DRC has about 26 miles of Atlantic coast and the vast, vast majority of the country is hundreds of miles from the Atlantic, as is most of the 1100 miles of its western border. (The arm is at least 270 miles long). The article claims the DRC is on the Atlantic coast; it is not. The article claims that the DRC is a coastal country. It is not. I wonder if the completely inaccurate geography in the lead is an indication that the rest of the article is equally bad?174.130.71.156 (talk) 06:25, 17 February 2023 (UTC)

26 miles is still on the coast though... so, it's not technically wrong. Maybe you could add context that would help people get the right idea about the coastal classification. Be the change you wish to see. Wkpdsrnm2023 (talk) 01:06, 13 April 2023 (UTC)

East Congo

The terms East Congo and West Congo could help alleviate the confusion between the naming of the two Congos. I consistently have to do double-takes when taking about these two countries and since other countries like North Korea and South Korea have cardinal classifications instead of referring to them as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea, wouldn't it make sense to do the same with the Congos? East Congo has a nice ring to it, no? Wkpdsrnm2023 (talk) 01:11, 13 April 2023 (UTC)

You're welcome to launch a campaign--outside of Wikipedia--to get the two Congos commonly referred to by those names. If you succeed, and the uses become widespread, Wikipedia will likely follow suit. But not before. (Anyway, I personally am glad that the Democratic Republic changed its name back to Congo; now that it's no longer called Zaire, I can say I've visited every country in the world that begins with Z.) Uporządnicki (talk) 12:46, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

Congo and North West Congo

Perhaps a better solution would be like Sudan: the clearly larger country in Sudan's geographical area is Sudan (officially the Republic of Sudan) and the smaller South Sudan (officially the Republic of South Sudan). Of course, something similar should be agreed between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo, i.e. the DT of the Congo would become Congo (officially the Republic of Congo, without "the" and no longer a communist-style "democratic republic") and the Republic of the Congo would become North West Congo (officially the Republic of North West Congo, without "the").

Finally: the Congo's geographical area also includes the former Portuguese and current Angolan Congo, Cabinda Province.

--2001:999:480:CCFC:45AA:2A40:AA83:7178 (talk) 15:39, 13 October 2024 (UTC)

On cobalt

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/01/1152893248/red-cobalt-congo-drc-mining-siddharth-kara and https://www.wbur.org/radio/programs/onpoint: The human cost of cobalt Kdammers (talk) 18:24, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

Proposal to Use ‘DR Congo’ Instead of ‘Democratic Republic of the Congo’

I would like to suggest simplifying the use of the name ‘Democratic Republic of the Congo’ to ‘DR Congo’ in contexts where the distinction between DR Congo and Congo (Republic of the Congo) is already clear. ‘DR Congo’ is widely recognized as the common and official name for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the ISO country code CD. This abbreviation is well established both in international organizations and popular usage.

In major global events such as the FIFA World Cup, Africa Cup of Nations, and the Olympics, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is referred to as ‘DR Congo’ to distinguish it from its neighbor, ‘Congo’ (Republic of the Congo, CG). This common distinction is also employed by international bodies like the United Nations and African Union, as well as in global media, where ‘DR Congo’ and ‘Congo’ are used interchangeably with their full names without confusion.

Using ‘DR Congo’ in most instances reflects global practices for simplifying country names. For example, the ‘French Republic’ is commonly referred to as ‘France,’ and the ‘Republic of Niger’ is just ‘Niger.’ Similarly, the ‘United States of America’ is referred to as ‘United States’ or ‘USA,’ and the ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’ is simply ‘United Kingdom’ or ‘UK.’ These shortened names are universally understood and accepted, just as ‘DR Congo’ is for the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Constantly using ‘Democratic Republic of the Congo’ in full adds unnecessary formality and can disrupt readability, especially since the shorter ‘DR Congo’ is widely accepted. The distinction between ‘Congo’ (Republic of the Congo) and ‘DR Congo’ (Democratic Republic of the Congo) is clear to most readers, and simplifying the name would make the text easier to follow without losing clarity.

I propose updating the language on this page to use ‘DR Congo’ in appropriate contexts, following the example of how other countries use shorter forms of their names. This would align the page with common international practices and enhance readability.

Looking forward to feedback from the community. Yufula (talk) 15:46, 23 October 2024 (UTC)