CD — DR Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the largest country in Sub-Saharan Africa and the second-largest in all of Africa, spanning 2.34 million square kilometers. Kinshasa, the capital, is Africa's third-largest urban area. The DRC is extraordinarily rich in minerals including cobalt, copper, coltan, and diamonds. Formerly known as Zaire, it uses the Congolese Franc (CDF). For developers, the CD country code (from 'Congo Démocratique') must be carefully distinguished from CG for the Republic of the Congo. The .cd ccTLD has been attractive for domain hacking related to 'CD' (compact disc). The +243 dialing code covers the vast DRC territory. French is the official language, but four national languages — Lingala, Swahili, Tshiluba, and Kikongo — are widely used, making the DRC one of Africa's most linguistically diverse nations for localization purposes. The fr-CD locale handles French conventions specific to the DRC.