In 2009, the Republic of the Congo had an estimated population of 4.1 million people, with a growth rate of 2.5%. The economy was largely based on oil and gas production as well as services such as banking and tourism. Foreign relations were mainly focused on trade agreements with the African Union, European Union, United States, China and other countries in Africa as well as regional organizations such as the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC). In terms of politics, Congo was a presidential republic with a semi-presidential system of government. In 2009, Denis Sassou Nguesso was the president at that time and his party had a majority in both houses of Parliament. See internetsailors for Republic of the Congo in the year of 2011.
Yearbook 2009
Congo. According to countryaah, President Denis Sassou-Nguesso was re-elected by a large majority in July. According to the Election Commission, he received 78.61 percent of the vote. Several of his twelve counter-candidates protested and refused to approve the result. The suspicion was mainly directed at voter participation being said to have been over 66 percent, while domestic observer groups, and candidates’ own representatives, claimed that it was significantly lower. However, the relatively few foreign observers found nothing significant to object to. See ABBREVIATIONFINDER for abbreviation CG which stands for the nation of Republic of the Congo.
During the year, the unrest in the Pool region again increased between the capital Brazzaville and the Atlantic coast. The area was hit hard during the civil war that lasted until 2003. It was unclear who this time was responsible for assaults against trains and road users and a number of rapes. So far, about 10,000 former rebel soldiers have been disarmed in a program supported by the World Bank, but many in the Pool region have retained their weapons.
The former leader of the so-called Ninjamilis in the Pool region, former Prime Minister Bernard Kolelas, passed away in Paris in November. He fled the country when Sassou-Nguesso triumphed in the civil war and was sentenced in 2000 in his absence to death for war crimes but later pardoned.
In October, Congo published a program to lease 200,000 hectares of agricultural land to South African farmers for 30 years. Foremost, white South Africans are expected to accept the offer to move here, while their own farms are transferred to landless blacks. According to the Congolese authorities, mainly abandoned state farms should be rented out. It is hoped that the increased production will reduce the need to import agricultural products and that the project will also mean that expert knowledge is transferred to the country.
HISTORY
The territory was part of the Kingdom of Congo. In 1880 a traveler of Italian origin in the service of France, Pietro Savorgnan di Brazzà, imposed the first protection treaty on Makoko, king of the Congolese population of the right bank; another treaty was stipulated in 1883. The colony that was established was first called Congo (Congo Français) and then Middle Congo (Moyen Congo). In 1910 it became part of French Equatorial Africa (AEF). In 1940 he joined free France and de Gaulle chose Brazzaville to hold the conference among French colonial administrators on the future of the empire (1944); then followed the evolution of the other African colonies in France: internal autonomy in 1956, constitutional referendum in 1958 with accession to the French Community and independence on August 15, 1960.
- In 1961 the Constitution was promulgated which attributed wide powers to the President of the Republic. The first president was Abbot F. Youlou, overthrown by a popular uprising in August 1963. The new regime was born from a coalition of military, student and union forces. President of the Republic was elected in December 1963 A. Massemba-Débat, deposed in 1968 by a military coup that brought M. Ngouabi to power. In 1970 an openly socialist Constitution proclaimed the Republic of Congo a People’s Republic. In 1977, the assassination of Ngouabi was followed by a phase of confusion and repression, with the death sentence and execution of Massemba-Débat. Head of state became Colonel J. Yhombi-Opango, replaced in 1979 by D. Sassou-Nguesso, then re-elected in 1984 and 1989.
- In the early 1990s, under increasing popular pressure, a certain political liberalization was initiated which led to the approval, by referendum, of a new Constitution (1992) still of a presidential type and to multi-party elections. In 1994 P. Lissouba was elected president, but the clashes between the different political factions degenerated into a vast guerrilla activity. In 1997, after five months of real civil war, Sassou-Nguesso returned to lead the country. In 2000, a national conference was organized to stabilize the internal truce and resume the democratization process, but the results were disappointing, despite the approval of a new Constitution (2001). Sassou-Nguesso won again in the presidential elections of March 2002, but after having expelled all his opponents from the competition; the revival of the guerrillas was inevitable, which remained in arms in the following years, despite a series of efforts to restore peace. The assertion of the Sassou-Nguesso regime – supported by political actions such as the co-opting of the antagonistic forces within the government and by military actions that resulted in the annihilation of rebel groups – was partly limited by the need to have the support of the Congolese Workers’ Party (PCT), which was reconfirmed in the legislative of July 2012 as the first force in favor of the president. In October 2015, the constitutional reform project that allowed Sassou-Nguesso to run for a third term at the helm of the country was predictably approved through a referendum; at the presidential elections, held in March 2016, the politician was reconfirmed with 67% of the votes, and re-elected for a new mandate in March 2021 with 88% of the votes; from the following May he holds the position of Prime Minister of the country A. Collinet Makosso.