Mai-Ndombe<\/a> to the south. Across the Congo and Ubangi rivers to the west lies the Republic of the Congo. Lake Tumba, one of the country’s largest shallow lakes, sits on the southern boundary near Bikoro.<\/p>\nDemographics<\/h2>\n
At roughly 18 people per km\u00b2, \u00c9quateur is thinly settled even by Congolese standards. Most people live along the rivers, because the rivers are the roads.<\/p>\n
The main peoples are the Mongo groups (Anamongo), together with the Ngombe, Babangi, Baloi, Babala, Babolia and Batwa forest communities. French is the official language of administration. Lingala is the everyday trade language on the river, and Lomongo is widely spoken inland, especially around Basankusu and Ingende.<\/p>\n
Economy and Local Life<\/h2>\n
Farming and fishing carry the province. Households grow cassava, plantain, maize, rice and groundnuts, and cut palm fruit for oil. Fishing camps line the Congo, the Ruki and Lake Tumba, and smoked fish moves upriver and down as a cash crop.<\/p>\n
Timber and non-timber forest products \u2014 bushmeat, caterpillars, raffia, honey \u2014 matter to household income. Coffee and rubber plantations from the colonial period survive only in patches. Mbandaka is the trading hub: goods arrive by barge from Kinshasa and are redistributed to Basankusu, Lukolela and Bikoro by smaller boats.<\/p>\n
History<\/h2>\n
Henry Morton Stanley founded a post at the equator in 1883 and called it \u00c9quateurville. The Belgians renamed it Coquilhatville in 1886; it became Mbandaka in 1966. Until 2015 the town was the capital of a much larger \u00c9quateur province covering the whole north-west. That province was dissolved into five, and the present \u00c9quateur is the smallest piece of it by population.<\/p>\n
Getting There<\/h2>\n
Mbandaka Airport handles the main scheduled flights from Kinshasa, and is the practical way in for most travellers. The alternative is the river: barge convoys between Kinshasa and Mbandaka take four to seven days, and continue upstream toward Boende and Lisala.<\/p>\n
Road conditions are poor. Most streets in Mbandaka itself are unpaved, and the tracks linking Bikoro, Ingende and Bolomba are seasonal. Basankusu and Lukolela are reached most reliably by boat.<\/p>\n
FAQ<\/h2>\nWhat is the capital of \u00c9quateur province?<\/h3>\n
Mbandaka, a city on the east bank of the Congo River at the mouth of the Ruki. It has around 324,000 residents and holds separate city (ville) status.<\/p>\n
How many territories does \u00c9quateur have?<\/h3>\n
Seven: Basankusu, Bikoro, Bolomba, Bomongo, Ingende, Lukolela and Makanza. The city of Mbandaka is administered separately from all of them.<\/p>\n
What is the population of \u00c9quateur?<\/h3>\n
About 1,856,000, projected for 2020. DR Congo has held no census since 1984, so every current figure is a projection rather than a count.<\/p>\n
What languages are spoken in \u00c9quateur?<\/h3>\n
French is official. Lingala is the common spoken language along the rivers, and Lomongo is widely used inland by the Mongo peoples.<\/p>\n
Which provinces border \u00c9quateur?<\/h3>\n
Sud-Ubangi, Mongala, Tshuapa and Mai-Ndombe. The Republic of the Congo lies across the Congo and Ubangi rivers to the west.<\/p>\n
Is \u00c9quateur the same as the old \u00c9quateur province?<\/h3>\n
No. The pre-2015 \u00c9quateur province was much larger. It was divided in 2015 into \u00c9quateur, Tshuapa, Mongala, Sud-Ubangi and Nord-Ubangi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00c9quateur is a province in north-west DR Congo, sitting astride the equator on the middle Congo River. Its capital is Mbandaka, and its projected 2020 population was 1,856,000 people spread over 103,902 km\u00b2. It is one of the 26 provinces created by the 2015 repartitioning, when the old \u00c9quateur province was split into five: \u00c9quateur, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"\u00c9quateur: Towns, Cities & 7 Territories in DR Congo","_seopress_titles_desc":"\u00c9quateur province, DR Congo: capital Mbandaka, 7 territories from Basankusu to Makanza, projected population, area, languages, rivers and how to get there.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-dr-congo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions\/135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}