Republic of the Congo

The Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville or simply Congo, is a country on the western coast of Central Africa west of the Congo River, bordered by Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Angolan exclave of Cabinda, with the Atlantic Ocean to the southwest. Bantu-speaking peoples dominated the region from at least 3,000 years ago, building trade links into the Congo River basin; from the thirteenth century a confederation led by Vungu included Kakongo and Ngoyo, the Tio Kingdom emerged in the fourteenth century and Loango in the sixteenth, and France colonized the region in the late nineteenth century as part of French Equatorial Africa. The Republic of the Congo was established on 28 November 1958 and gained independence from France in 1960; it was a Marxist-Leninist state as the People's Republic of the Congo from 1969 to 1992, and after multi-party elections in 1992 the elected government was overthrown in a civil war, after which Denis Sassou Nguesso, who had already served as president from 1979 to 1992, returned to office in 1997 and has remained president since. A member of the African Union, the United Nations and other regional bodies, the country is the fourth-largest oil producer in the Gulf of Guinea, a status that has brought some prosperity alongside political instability and unequal distribution of oil revenue; Christianity is the most widely professed faith.