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The Republic of Congo's history has been characterised by coups and a series of civil wars in the 1990s.
Years of fighting led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in the Pool, Bouenza, Niari and Brazzaville regions and a further deterioration in people's living conditions.
Although Congo is one of the largest oil producers in Africa, capable of allocating resources for reconstruction, rehabilitation and reintegration, a large proportion of the population lives in poverty.
The country continues to feel the effects of the war that ended in 2003, displaced millions of people and ravaged the economy.
Peace and security
The Congo experienced three successive rounds of war in 1993, 1997 and 1998-1999 due to escalating political and ethnic tensions.
The four main militias involved in the wars comprised the 'Cobras', led by Denis Sassou-Nguesso (president between 1979 and 1992 and since 1997), the 'Coyotes' and the 'Zulus' led by Pascal Lissouba (president between 1992 and 1997), and the 'Ninjas' led by Bernard Kolelas (former prime minister) and Frederic Bintsangou, alias Pasteur Ntoumi.
The 1993 and 1997 civil wars were fought with particular violence in Brazzaville, while the 1998-1999 war spread farther to the most populated areas of Central and Southern Congo, leading to large-scale looting and killings, destruction of infrastructure and massive population displacement.
A peace agreement was reached in March 2003 between the government and southern militias.
The leader of the last active rebel group, Le comité national pour le résistance (CNR), Pasteur Ntoumi, also agreed to adhere to the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programme, and start a political dialogue with the government.
So far, Ntoumi has announced that the CNR will become a political party and take part in legislative elections this year in a move expected to restore peace to the administrative department of the Pool.
The government's gun programme, established in November 2005, is aimed at retrieving 15,000 guns in the Pool and Brazzaville regions.
According to a report by the Swiss NGO, Small Arms Survey, there were at least 34,000 guns still in circulation in the ROC, mainly in the Pool, in 2005.
In October 2005, government troops fought Ninja rebels in the Bakongo district, causing fear and panic in Brazzaville.
However, so far, security has been restored in most parts of the country although the security situation in the Pool remains fragile.
In January 2006, the International Committee for the Red Cross/Red Crescent (ICRC) temporarily suspended its activities in the Pool, citing security concerns.
Refugees
The Congo hosts more than 63,000 refugees, mainly from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Angola, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
In the past two years, more than 130,000 internally displaced people, who had fled their homes due to recurrent internal conflict, have returned to the south Pool region. However, the threat of insecurity remains and the number of displaced is estimated at 147,000.
In 2007, UNHCR will continue to facilitate voluntary repatriation of refugees.
Democracy and governance
The Congo adopted multi-party democracy in 1992, paving the way for general elections in which President Sassou-Nguesso lost to Pascal Lissouba. Sassou-Nguesso had seized power in a coup in 1979.
The next elections, in 1997, were derailed by a civil war fuelled by rivalry between Sassou-Nguesso and Lissouba. The war ended in 1999 with Sassou-Nguesso declaring himself president.
Sassou-Nguesso then went on to win the general elections in 2002, beginning a seven-year term. The elections followed the adoption of a new constitution, giving greater power to the executive, in January 2002.
Other contenders for the presidency, former President Pascal Lissouba and former Prime Minister Bernard Kolelas, were barred from participating in the elections while the third contender, Andre Milongo, pulled out, alleging irregularities. Legislative elections were also held in May and June 2002.
In 2005, Sassou-Nguesso reshuffled his 35-member cabinet.
Media
The media in the Congo operates in a free environment with a 2001 press law abolishing jail sentences for libel and insult.
However, in April 2006, a director of the private Brazzaville-based weekly Thalassa was arrested and charged with defamation, insulting the head of state, and "propagating false news", according to the press freedom organisation Journaliste en Danger.
Economy
The macroeconomic environment in the Congo shows signs of improvement, according to the World Bank. In 2005, gross domestic product (GDP) growth was 7.9 percent, up from 3.6 percent in 2004.
The economy is mainly driven by oil production, with the sector accounting for about 50 percent of GDP, approximately 80 percent of fiscal revenues, and almost 90 percent of total export earnings.
Growth in non-oil sectors, particularly services, such as consulting and construction, remained consistently above 5 percent between 2001 and 2006.
Despite its economic performance, Congo still faces challenges in debt management, transparency in the collection of oil revenues, and governance.
Congo reached the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative decision point in 2006.
GDP per capita, measured by purchasing power parity, is US$978, according to the UN Development Programme.
Population
The Congo has a population of nearly four million, belonging to 70 ethnic groups. The population is mainly urban, concentrated in the capital, Brazzaville, and the port city of Pointe Noire.
With nearly 20 percent of the population aged between 15 and 24, the government is concerned about its high population growth rate (3 percent per year) and fertility levels (6.3 lifetime births per woman), according to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).
About 5 percent of the population is HIV positive with the number of AIDS orphans increasing from 87,000 in 2001 to 97,000 in 2003. Approximately 48 percent of the population lives in rural areas with limited access to potable water and sanitation.
The national or official languages in the ROC include Lingala, Kituba, and French. Other languages/dialects spoken include Aka, Akwa, Bangandu, Bobangi, Bomwali, Kunyi and Laari.
Development indicators
The ROC ranks 140 out of 177 countries with data in UNDP's Human Development Report for 2006.
Life expectancy at birth is 52.3 years. However, at least 33.6 percent of the population has a probability of not surviving past the age of 40.
Adult mortality is 434 per 1,000 for men and 381 for women.
Maternal mortality has fallen from 890 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 510 in 2000 while the infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births is 108.
The combined primary, secondary and tertiary education enrolment ratio is 51.7 percent.
Education
The Congo has a high primary to secondary school transition rate of 78 percent, with 66 percent of children completing a full primary course.
However, many children are two or three grades behind in their schooling.
The civil war also destroyed most of the educational infrastructure, with the majority of schools short of furniture, teachers and supplies.
Overall, the literacy rate for men and women is 62.5 percent.
At least 12.6 percent of government spending goes to education, according to the UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Despite this, the education sector still faces numerous challenges, with teacher strikes common.
In 2005, there was a six-week teachers' strike, with teachers demanding extra funding for education in the 2006 budget and the establishment of a commission to integrate voluntary teachers into the civil service.
Children
Infant and under-five mortality rates remain high in the Congo at 81 and 108 per 1,000 births, respectively, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).
Under-nutrition is also widespread, with one in five children suffering from stunting, while 14 percent of children younger than five are underweight.
The main causes of morbidity and mortality, especially affecting children, are malaria, diarrhoeal diseases, TB and HIV/AIDS.
The war left thousands of children without birth certificates, young girls with babies by unknown fathers, and child soldiers needing demobilisation and reintegration into civil society.
Health
The health system has been devastated by years of conflict, with the Pool region the worst affected. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the clinics that are still functioning need equipment and essential drugs.
Less than half the population has access to clean water, exacerbating the incidence of waterborne and gastro-intestinal diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera.
In the Pool region, only 2 percent of the population has access to modern sanitation and 8 percent to clean water, according to UNICEF. Overall, at least 42 percent of the population does not have access to an improved water source, according to the UNDP.
By the end of January, an outbreak of diarrhoea, caused by cholera, had killed at least 41 people in the port city of Pointe-Noire.
The country is also prone to frequent outbreaks of the haemorrhagic fever Ebola, with a total of 12 cases including nine deaths reported in Etoumbi and Mbomo in Cuvette Ouest Region in 2005, according to WHO.
Endemic malaria is responsible for more than one-third of morbidity rates. Respiratory infections and tropical disease are other common complaints.
Nationwide vaccination coverage is estimated at 60 percent, dropping to 51 percent in the Pool region.
The low quality of medical care, coupled with poor facilities and inadequate access, result in a very high maternal mortality rate: the lifetime risk of dying in childbirth for a Congolese woman is one in 26.
HIV/AIDS
In the ROC, women under the age of 35 are twice as affected as men, with 61,000 women over the age of 15 living with HIV out of the 100,000 adults aged 15 and above who are living with HIV.
The main hurdles to prevention, treatment and care of HIV are traditions and custom, and the chronic inadequacy of preventative and case-management services including nutrition services, according to the UN AIDS Programme (UNAIDS).
Other challenges to HIV control include: the high cost of treatment and laboratory examinations; irregular and infrequent meetings of the commission responsible for recruiting patients for anti-retroviral treatment; and the lack of a support fund for different control activities.
At least 5.3 percent of the population between the ages of 15 and 49 years is HIV-positive. The prevalence ranges from 1.3 percent in the north to 10.3 percent in the south.
According to UNAIDS, the prospects for improving the ROC's response to HIV include: strengthening the components of the healthcare system as a whole; nationwide provision of universal access to treatment; strengthening the capacities of associations of people living with HIV; and mainstreaming HIV control into all development plans and management of strategic information.
Food security
Food crop production in the ROC is below the country's consumption requirements, with only 2 percent of the 10 million hectares of arable land under cultivation, resulting in increased food imports, according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP).
Repeated armed conflicts and interruptions of the railway traffic between Pointe-Noire and Brazzaville have also worsened the country's precarious food security.
The Pool, Bouenza and Lékoumou regions are also threatened by the manioc mosaic virus which has deprived several households of their main source of revenue and a basic food.
Gender issues
Women are inadequately represented in positions of influence, with only 11.1 percent of the seats in parliament held by women.
In the latest government reshuffle of January 2005, Sassou-Nguesso increased the number of women in the cabinet to five from an original two out of 35.
Large-scale population mobility due to insecurity, particularly in the southern parts of the country, has also increased the vulnerability of women and adolescent girls to HIV/AIDS.
Meanwhile, UNFPA is implementing a five-year programme to improve reproductive health capacity for service delivery and management, rehabilitate maternity centres, provide medicines and equipment for emergency obstetric care, and strengthen psychosocial support to victims of gender-based violence in the country.
Human rights
According to Amnesty International, at least 20 people were arrested in January and February 2006 in connection with an alleged plot against the government; while several were granted provisional release, most remained in custody at the end of the year.
Moreover, despite 15 members of the security services being charged before the Brazzaville criminal court after being implicated in the mid-1999 'disappearance' of at least 350 refugees returning from the Democratic Republic of Congo, they were not suspended from their positions before or during the trial.
At the end of the trial in August, the court failed to specify who had carried out the 'disappearances' but ordered the state to pay unspecified compensation to the families of the victims.
Humanitarian needs
The humanitarian crisis remains particularly acute in the Pool region, according to UNICEF, with at least 120,000 people displaced. Aid agencies have limited access to thousands of people living hidden in the forests.
Despite the return of displaced people to Brazzaville, the socio-sanitary infrastructure has not yet been rebuilt, resulting in delayed normalisation of the situation, according to the WFP.
At least 130,000 people have returned to a completely destroyed Pool region. Some have received seeds and tools to restart agricultural activities, but a significant number of them cannot carry out agriculture activities because of insecurity.
The ROC also requires support from international NGOs to rebuild its health infrastructure, especially in the Pool, where there is a need for supplies for laboratories and blood banks as well as epidemiological surveillance and health information systems.
CREDIT : IRIN - United Nations Office – Humanitarian Country Profile
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