Impfondo is a town in the northeastern Republic of the Congo with a population of around 41,000 people, lying on the

Oubangui River The Ubangi River (), also spelled Oubangui, is the largest right-bank tributary of the Congo River in the region of Central Africa. It begins at the confluence of the Mbomou (mean annual discharge 1,350 m3/s) and Uele Rivers (mean annual discharge ...

. It is home to an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

and is linked by river barge to Brazzaville and to

Bangui Bangui () (or Bangî in Sango, formerly written Bangi in English) is the capital and largest city of the Central African Republic. It was established as a French outpost in 1889 and named after its location on the northern bank of the Ubangi ...

. It is the administrative centre of Impfondo District and the

Likouala Region Likouala is a department of the Republic of the Congo in the northern part of the country. It borders the departments of Cuvette and Sangha, and internationally, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic. The region ha ...

. Historically called Desbordesville, Impfondo is usually a stopping point on the way to

by barge. It is a frontier kind of place, the last vestige of what could be called civilisation in an area overwhelmed by dense forest swamps and small villages. Rumours abound of a police force and sets of soldiers more corrupt than in other parts of the Congo, probably due to its remoteness, in addition to being so close to the

Democratic Republic of 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 ...

over the river. Soldiers from DR Congo have been known to cross and harass the population on occasion, making people here more on edge than usual. The entire western side of the

Congo River The Congo River ( kg, Nzâdi Kôngo, french: Fleuve Congo, pt, Rio Congo), formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the second largest river in the world by discharge ...

in the Likouala is also home to refugee camps, though as the conflict in DR Congo subsides, they should be making their way back across the river. To the west of Impfondo lies the Lac Tele area of the tropical jungle. This area is one of the least developed regions of Africa, with stretches of barely touched equatorial rain-forest and wetlands stretching for hundreds of kilometres in every direction. The footprint of civilisation is small, and in some ways threaten to disappear altogether - with barely existent dirt roads connecting small villages with the addition of the looming presence of Ebola epidemics. Wilderness and animal concerns take precedence over the daily lives of people, and by some accounts, the Congo's north is the 'last great wilderness of Africa'. Large animals are still found across the area, including lowland gorillas,

hippopotamus The hippopotamus ( ; : hippopotamuses or hippopotami; ''Hippopotamus amphibius''), also called the hippo, common hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extan ...

forest elephants The African forest elephant (''Loxodonta cyclotis'') is one of the two living African elephant species. It is native to humid forests in West Africa and the Congo Basin. It is the smallest of the three living elephant species, reaching a should ...

, crocodiles and numerous monkeys. The wetlands are also home to several hundred bird species, numerous snake species, and many as-yet-discovered aspects of the region. There is a highly undeveloped dirt trail heading north from Impfondo along the river into the

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...

References

Likouala Department Populated places in the Republic of the Congo Ubangi River {{RCongo-geo-stub