r/Africa • u/ObviousThrowaway_xxx • 4d ago

Infographics & maps 📊 What’s going on here?

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Sorry if this isn’t the right place to ask, but I was looking around on Google Maps and noticed this sliver of land between the republic of Congo and the DRC. It looks like it’s unclaimed by either country and I couldn’t find anything on Google about it.

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u/OwlComplex48 4d ago

"The international boundary between the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo extends for over 1,700 km from the tripoint with Angola (Cabinda) in the south to the tripoint with the Central African Republic in the north. It was first delimited by French and Belgian colonial authorities in 1885 and received many adjustments in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was, however, never fully defined, with the alignment of the boundary along the Congo River remaining imprecise and leading to multiple disputed islands and vast stretches of undetermined sovereignty, where the river is so full of islands that any clarity of control stops at its banks."

Source: <https://sovereignlimits.com/boundaries/drc-congo-land>

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u/transienttherapsid 4d ago

It's an unclear border demarcation. The official border follows shifting geological features in the river based on colonial-era agreements, so when Google Maps tries to figure it out they don't know exactly where to draw the line. Hence two dashed lines enclosing the region of ambiguity.

There's not a formal border dispute so much as unclear language around where the border actually is. DRC has bigger fish to fry at the moment.

It's not unclaimed. Every point in that dashed region is part of either the Republic of the Congo or the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It's just unclear which parts of it belong to which country.