Welcome to the Kinshasa city which is the capital and the largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is beside the Congo River. Once a site of fishing and trading villages, Kinshasa is now a mega city with an estimated population of more than 11 million.
It faces Brazzaville, the capital of the neighbouring Republic of the Congo, which can be seen in the distance across the wide Congo River, making them the two closest capital cities on Earth after Rome and the Vatican City. The city of Kinshasa is also one of the DRC’s 26 provinces.
Because the administrative boundaries of the city-province cover a vast area, over 90 percent of the city-province’s land is rural in nature, and the urban area occupies a small but expanding section on the western side. Kinshasa is Africa’s third-largest urban area after Cairo and Lagos.
It is also the world’s largest Francophone urban area, with French being the language of government, schools, newspapers, public services, and high-end commerce in the city, while Lingala is used as a lingua franca in the street. Kinshasa hosted the 14th Francophone Summit in October 2012. Residents of Kinshasa are known as Kinois or Kinshasans.