Bikoro is a

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

in Équateur Province in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

, lying on

Lake Tumba Lake Tumba (or Ntomba) is a shallow lake in northwestern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in the Bikoro Territory of the Province of Équateur. The lake covers about depending on the season, connected via the Irebu channel with the ...

, south of

Mbandaka Mbandaka (, formerly known as Coquilhatville in French, or Coquilhatstad in Dutch) is a city on the Congo River in the Democratic Republic of Congo located near the confluence of the Congo and Ruki rivers. It is the capital of Équateur Provinc ...

. It is the administrative center of

Bikoro Territory Bikoro Territory is an administrative area in Équateur District of Équateur province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The headquarters is the town of Bikoro. The territory lies to the south of the provincial capital of Mbandaka. It is b ...

. In 2012, the estimated population was 7,426. Bikoro was the

episcopal see An episcopal see is, in a practical use of the phrase, the area of a bishop's ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Phrases concerning actions occurring within or outside an episcopal see are indicative of the geographical significance of the term, mak ...

of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Bikoro The Roman Catholic Diocese (formerly a missionary jurisdiction) of Bikoro was a Latin Church diocese in (initially Belgian) Congo (Zaire) from 1931 to 1975, named after its then headquarters/ episcopal see Bikoro, run by the Congregation of the Mis ...

(which started as a

mission sui iuris A mission ''sui iuris'', or in Latin ''missio sui iuris'' (plural ''missions sui iuris''); also spelled mission(s) sui juris), also known as an independent mission, is a rare type of Roman Catholic missionary pseudo-diocesan jurisdiction, rankin ...

in 1931) until its suppression in 1975. In 2018, Bikoro was affected by an outbreak of

Ebola virus disease Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after becom ...

, the ninth in the DRC's history.

Trivia

There is an airfield called Bikoro Airport found in official registers with the ICAO-Code FZBC. Bikoro never had an airport as various old maps and aeronautical charts confirm. It is instead served by the airfield of Yembe-Moke (FZEM) located 7 miles north-east of the town. Additionally, the third letter "B" in the code indicates that the airport is located the former province of Bandundu. Bikoro is located in the former province of Equateur. It is therefore assumed that FZBC is actually the ICAO code intended for Bokoro airport that has been wrongly assigned due to a spelling error.

References

Populated places in the province of Équateur {{DRCongo-geo-stub