Regions of the Republic of Congo (Congo Brazzaville)

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Updates: 

FIPS Publication Change Notice No. 10, affecting FIPS PUB 10-4, was issued on 2006-03-23. It assigns a new FIPS code to Cuvette-Ouest and changes the code for Cuvette, from which it was split.

Thanks to Neil Parker, I have new information about the creation of Cuvette-Ouest region. It is divided into Etoumbi, Ewo, Kéllé, Mbama, Mbomo, and Okoyo districts. It was created by Law 002/95 of 1995-02-18. It is said to have a population of over 60,000 as of 2004, and an area of about 26,000 km.². A different source says that the area of Cuvette is 41,800 km.², and of Cuvette-Ouest, 27,200 km.²; this disagrees with the figure formerly given for the combined region, 74,850 km.².

Cuvette-Ouest was listed in both versions of international standard ISO 3166-2, starting with the draft standard which was distributed in late 1996. It still hasn't appeared in the FIPS standard. The following table shows the information that I have for all of the regions of Republic of Congo.

Country overview: 

Congo was one of the territories of French Equatorial Africa until 1960, under the name Moyen Congo. (For further details, see Central African Republic.) It gained independence on 1960-08-15 and took the name République du Congo (Republic of Congo). There was already a République du Congo across the river from it. Most people distinguished the two countries by calling them Congo-Léopoldville and Congo-Brazzaville, according to their capitals. In 1970-01, this country's name was changed to People's Republic of Congo, but the change was later reversed.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Congo brazzaville, Republikken Congo
2. Dutch: Kongo, Congo-Brazzaville, Republiek Congo (formal)
3. English: Congo-Brazzaville (informal), Middle Congo (obsolete)
4. Finnish: Kongo, Brazzavillen Kongo, Kongon tasavalta
5. French: Congo, République f du Congo m, Moyen Congo (obsolete)
6. German: Kongo, Republik f Kongo m
7. Icelandic: Kongó
8. Italian: Repubblica f del Congo m
9. Norwegian: Kongo, Kongo-Brazzaville, Republikken Kongo (formal)
10. Portuguese: República f do Congo m
11. Spanish: Congo, República f del Congo m (formal)
12. Swedish: Kongo (Brazzaville)

Origin of name: 

from the Congo river, which came from the ethnic name Kikongo

Primary subdivisions: 

Republic of Congo is divided into ten régions (sometimes informally called départements) and one capital district.

Further subdivisions:

See the Districts of the Republic of Congo page.

The regions are subdivided into districts, which are further subdivided into communes.

Origins of names: 

1. Brazzaville: Named for Count Pietro Paolo Savorgnan di Brazza (1852-1905), the city's founder
2. Cuvette: French cuvette: basin (in either the hydrological or utensil sense)
3. Plateaux: French for plateaus
4. Pool: For Stanley Pool, an enlargement in the Congo River

Change history: 

1. 1967: Congo (Brazzaville) reorganized from fifteen prefectures into 9 regions and one capital district. The old prefectures included Alima, Équateur, and Likouala-Mossaka, which merged to form Cuvette region, according to a thesis by Goyendzi Raoul.
2. 1977: Capital of Cuvette renamed from Fort-Rousset to Owando.
3. ~1980: Capital of Niari renamed from Dolisie to Loubomo.
4. ~1980: Brazzaville commune split from Pool (former FIPS code: CF09).
5. 1995-02-18: Cuvette-Ouest region split from Cuvette (former FIPS code: CF03).
6. ~2000: Capital of Niari renamed from Loubomo to Dolisie.