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Territorial Organisation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Reference : Executive Order 081 of July 8 1998 on administrative and territorial organisation in the RDC

The administrative hierarchy of Political subdivisions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is as follows

• Province (formerly "Région")
  • Mairies (in Urban Areas)
    • Cities
      • Commune or Incorporated Grouping (formerly "zone urbaine" (urban area))
        • Quartier (neighborhoods)
  • Territoriale (in Rural Areas)
    • District (formerly "Sub-region")
      • Territoire (formerly "rural zone")
        • Cité (Town)
          • Quartier (neighborhoods)
        • Chefferie (Chiefdom formerly "Collectivité chefferie") or Sector
          • Groupement (Grouping)
            • Village

• The province is led by a Governor.
• The commune is led by a Bourgmestre (Mayor).
• The territory is led by Territory Administrator. The territory is generally named after its main town.
• The city is led by a Mayor.
• The district is led by District Commissioner.

Specificities

• the city of Kinshasa is both a province and a city. Thus, it is not divided in cities and districts (except for internal police administration), and has no mayor. The Governor also fulfills the position of Mayor. The Rural part of Kinshasa is encompassed by the communes of Maluku and (partially) Nsele;
• The provinces resulting from the partition of the old Kivu Province, namely Maniema, Nord-Kivu and Sud-Kivu do not have districts;
• some territories are not under the jurisdiction of a district, but that of a city. In Muanda's case, it is under the jurisdiction of the city of Boma;
• Kolwezi is under the jurisdiction of the urban-rural district of Kolwezi;
• most existing districts, like Mongala (district) shall probably be recreated as provinces, with the disappearance of the district system in most of these new provinces. Other districts, like Plateaux (district) and Mai-Ndombe (district) will be merged, including the adjoined cities. Only Kongo Central (formerly Bas-Congo) will continue to exist as a province divided into districts.

Decentralised Administrative Entities

Among these entities, the following have been decentralised :

• the Province
• the City
• the Territory
• the Commune (in the case of the city of Kinshasa)

External links

• (French)Juricongo : Codes et lois de l'administration territoriale
• (French)Carte des territoires et villes
• http://www.congonline.com/geo/zonesadm.htm
• Administrative Zones of the Democratic Republic of Congo at statoids.com
• http://www.rodhecic.org/article.php3?id_article=279