Portal:Central African Republic
The Central African Republic Portal
The Central African Republic (CAR) is a landlocked country located in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the south, the Republic of the Congo to the southwest, and Cameroon to the west. The Central African Republic covers a land area of about 620,000 square kilometres (240,000 sq mi). As of 2024, it has a population of 5,357,744, consisting of about 80 ethnic groups. Having been a French colony under the name Ubangi-Shari, French is its official language, with Sango, a Ngbandi-based creole language, as the national and co-official language. Its capital and largest city is Bangui, which is on the southern border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Central African Republic mainly consists of Sudano-Guinean savanna, but the country also includes a Sahelo-Sudanian zone in the north and an equatorial forest zone in the south. Two-thirds of the country is within the basin of the Ubangi River (which flows into the Congo River), while the remaining third lies in the basin of the Chari River, which flows into Lake Chad. What is today the Central African Republic has been inhabited since at least 8000 BCE. The country's borders were established by France, which began annexing portions to the French Congo in the late 19th century and in 1903 established the separate colony of Ubangi-Shari, part of French Equatorial Africa. After gaining independence from France in 1960, the Central African Republic was ruled by a series of autocratic leaders, including Jean-Bedel Bokassa who changed the country's name to the Central African Empire and ruled as a monarch from 1976 to 1979. The Central African Republic Bush War began in 2004 and, despite a peace treaty in 2007 and another in 2011, civil war resumed in 2012. The civil war perpetuated the country's poor human rights record, characterized by widespread and increasing abuses by various participating armed groups. Despite the country's vast amounts of natural resources, such as uranium reserves, crude oil, gold, diamonds, cobalt, lumber, and hydropower, as well as significant quantities of arable land, the Central African Republic is among the ten poorest countries in the world, with the lowest GDP per capita at purchasing power parity (PPP) in the world as of 2017. As of 2023, according to the Human Development Index (HDI), the country had the third-lowest level of human development, ranking 191 out of 193 countries. The country had the second-lowest inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI), ranking 164th out of 165 countries. The Central African Republic is also estimated to be the unhealthiest country, as well as the worst country to be in for young people. The Central African Republic is a member of the United Nations, the African Union, the Economic Community of Central African States, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie and the Non-Aligned Movement. (Full article...) Selected article -Sango (also spelled Sangho) is a major language spoken in Central Africa, especially the Central African Republic, southern Chad and Democratic Republic of the Congo. The primary language of the Sango people (or Basango, Bosango, Sangho, Sangos), it is an official language in the Central African Republic, where it is used as a lingua franca across the country. Although there are no statistics to quantify people who speak it as a first versus second language, almost all 5,500,000 people in the Central African Republic speak it as of 2025. Sango is a language with contested classification, with some linguists considering it a Ngbandi-based creole, while others argue that the changes in Sango structures can be explained without a creolization process. It has many French loanwords, but its structure remains wholly Ngbandi. Sango was used as a trade language along the Ubangi River before French colonisation in the late 1800s and has since expanded as an interethnic communication language. In colloquial speech, almost all of the language's vocabulary is Ngbandi-based, whereas in more technical speech French loanwords constitute the majority. Sango has three distinct sociolinguistic norms: an urban "radio" variety, a "pastor" variety, and a "functionary" variety spoken by learned people who make the highest use of French loanwords. (Full article...) General images -The following are images from various Central African Republic-related articles on Wikipedia.
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| Rank | City / town | Préfecture | Population (2003 census) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bangui | N/a | 622,771 |
| 2 | Bimbo | Ombella-M'Poko | 124,176 |
| 3 | Berbérati | Mambéré-Kadéï | 76,918 |
| 4 | Carnot * | Mambéré-Kadéï | 45,421 |
| 5 | Bambari | Ouaka | 41,356 |
| 6 | Bouar | Nana-Mambéré | 40,353 |
| 7 | Bossangoa | Ouham | 36,478 |
| 8 | Bria | Haute-Kotto | 35,204 |
| 9 | Bangassou | Mbomou | 31,553 |
| 10 | Nola | Sangha-Mbaéré | 29,181 |
| 11 | Kaga-Bandoro | Nana-Grébizi | 24,661 |
| 12 | Sibut | Kémo | 22,419 |
| 13 | Mbaïki | Lobaye | 22,166 |
| 14 | Bozoum | Ouham-Pendé | 20,655 |
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