Wamba is a town in Haut-Uele province of 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 ...

. It is the administrative center of

Wamba territory Wamba Territory is a part of the Haut-Uele province of 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 Cong ...

Location and people

The area around Wamba consists of a rainforest-derived mosaic of dry, swamp, and secondary forest, with cultivated fields. Altitude is between and . Annual rainfall is around . Both Wamba and nearby

Mungbere Mungbere is a small town in Haut-Uele province, in the north of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Transport It was served by the terminal of a now non-operational narrow gauge railway from Bumba, known as the Vicicongo line. See also * Li ...

are inaccessible due to the very poor roads in the region.

History

The Apostolic Vicariate of Wamba was established in 1949 and was promoted to the Diocese of Wamba in 1959. During the

Simba Rebellion The Simba rebellion, also known as the Orientale revolt, was a regional uprising which took place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1963 and 1965 in the wider context of the Congo Crisis and the Cold War. The rebellion, located in t ...

, in December 1964 rebels held 250 white hostages in Wamba. Two mercenary rescue columns reached the town at the end of the year. They found that 28 whites had been brutally killed, mostly Belgians, including the Bishop Monsignor Joseph-Pierre Albert Wittebols. 121 whites were still alive, mainly Greeks who had provided cash and cooperated with the rebels in exchange for their lives.

Today

The town is home to a station of the ''Centre de Recherche en Ecologie et Forestiere''. Many of the people in these towns rely for their livelihoods on the

Okapi Wildlife Reserve The Okapi Wildlife Reserve is a wildlife reserve in the Ituri Forest in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, near the borders with South Sudan and Uganda. At approximately 14,000 km2, it covers approximately one-fifth of t ...

, a

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

. The reserve is home to the rare

Okapi The okapi (; ''Okapia johnstoni''), also known as the forest giraffe, Congolese giraffe, or zebra giraffe, is an artiodactyl mammal that is endemic to the northeast Democratic Republic of the Congo in central Africa. It is the only species i ...

species, a relative of the giraffe. Efforts have been made to train the people in alternate ways to make a living and to educate them in the importance of conservation. As of 2011 the Bishop of Wamba was Janvier Kataka Luvete.

References

Populated places in Haut-Uélé {{DRCongo-geo-stub