Ouésso (in

kikongo Kongo or Kikongo is one of the Bantu languages spoken by the Kongo people living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, and Angola. It is a tonal language. The vast majority of present-day speakers li ...

: Weso) is a town and commune in the Ouésso District in northern

Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo), is a country located on the western coast of Central ...

at the border of

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

, lying on the

Sangha River The Sangha River (, , ), a tributary of the Congo River, is located in Central Africa. Geography The Sangha River is formed at the confluence of the Mambéré River and the Kadéï River at Nola in the western Central African Republic (). The ...

and surrounded by

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

. It is the capital of the Sangha Department. Its population was 75,095 in 2023, the date of the country's last official census.

Economy

Ouésso is one of the four

special economic zone A special economic zone (SEZ) is an area in which the business and trade laws are different from the rest of the country. SEZs are located within a country's national borders, and their aims include increasing trade balance, employment, increas ...

s in the Republic of the Congo. The town's main industries are

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests and woodlands for associated resources for human and Natural environment, environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and ...

, agriculture, and

wood processing Wood processing is an engineering discipline in the wood industry comprising the production of forest products, such as pulp and paper, construction materials, and tall oil. Paper engineering is a subfield of wood processing. The major wo ...

. a power purchase agreement in 2017 with the

Gezhouba Group China Gezhouba Group Company Limited () is a Chinese construction and engineering company based in Wuhan, Hubei. As of 2014, the company is the 33rd largest contractor by revenue in the world. The major shareholder of the company (40.8%) is stat ...

led to the creation of the Liouesso Hydroelectric Power Station, which powers Ouésso.

Bushmeat

In 1994, Ouésso consumed 7,500 kilograms of

bushmeat Bushmeat is meat from wildlife species that are Hunting, hunted for human consumption. Bushmeat represents a primary source of animal protein and a cash-earning commodity in poor and rural communities of humid tropical forest regions of the worl ...

a week. The most sold animal in the bushmeat market are

duiker A duiker is a small to medium-sized brown antelope native to sub-Saharan Africa, found in heavily wooded areas. The 22 extant species, including three sometimes considered to be subspecies of the other species, form the subfamily Cephalophinae ...

s, but gorillas, monkeys, and elephants were also sold. The meat was transported from Liousesso, a village southwest out Ouésso, and often on logging trucks from Cameroon. Ouésso lacks enforcement of the bushmeat market. On 27 October 2016, ivory dealer Hamadou Abbo, and his accomplices, Minda Xavier and Gonock Evounanga Edgard, were each sentenced to 5 years in an Ouésso prison. In May 2018,

Guyvanho Mobanza Mobembo Gérard, (born ), known as Guyvanho, nicknamed the Butcher of Nouabalé Ndoki, is a Congolese convicted ivory trafficker and poacher. He was sentenced to thirty years in prison for poaching and attempted murder of park rangers, the ...

, an elephant

poacher Poaching is the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set against the hunti ...

and

ivory trade The ivory trade is the commercial, often illegal trade in the ivory tusks of the hippopotamus, walrus, narwhal, black and white rhinos, mammoth, and most commonly, African elephant, African and Asian elephants. Ivory has been traded for hundred ...

r, was arrested and held in jail in Ouésso. On June 2, 12 days before his trial, he escaped from prison. He was arrested again on 31 May 2019. He attempted to escape, but failed, and was transferred to prison in Brazzaville.

Logging

Ouésso is a

carbon negative Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is a process in which carbon dioxide () is removed from the atmosphere by deliberate human activities and durably stored in geological, terrestrial, or ocean reservoirs, or in products.IPCC, 2021:Annex VII: Glossar ...

area. Between 2001 and 2022, the town had a

carbon sink A carbon sink is a natural or artificial carbon sequestration process that "removes a greenhouse gas, an aerosol or a precursor of a greenhouse gas from the atmosphere". These sinks form an important part of the natural carbon cycle. An overar ...

of -8.40. In 2010, the

Parliament of the Republic of the Congo The Parliament of the Republic of the Congo consists of two chambers: *The Senate (Upper Chamber) *The National Assembly (Lower Chamber) See also * Politics of the Republic of the Congo *List of legislatures by country This is a list of legi ...

passed a law that gave protection to the country's indigenous

pygmy In anthropology, pygmy peoples are ethnic groups whose average height is unusually short. The term pygmyism is used to describe the phenotype of endemic short stature (as opposed to disproportionate dwarfism occurring in isolated cases in a po ...

and Baka people and their land. This made logging more difficult.

Transportation

In April 2007, a South Korean consortium proposed to build a

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

to Ouésso from

Brazzaville Brazzaville () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Republic of the Congo. Administratively, it is a Departments of the Republic of the Congo, department and a Communes of the Republic of the Congo, commune. Constituting t ...

, in exchange for a concession to harvest timber. In 2015, the city's port was extended 100 linear meters. The expansion was funded by the

Development Bank of the Central African States The Development Bank of the Central African States, usually known for its French initials, BDEAC, is a multilateral development bank that is charged with financing the development of the member states of Economic and Monetary Community of Centra ...

, which has a complex in Ouésso. Ouésso is connected to Brazzaville by a 828 km road titled the "RN2". In 2021, the Sangmelina-Ouésso Road was constructed, which connected Ouésso to Cameroon and removed the need for

ferries A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus. ...

. The road was 321.5 kilometers long, and costed US$354 million. The ceremony of its completion was attended by . In 2023, the Chinese

National Development and Reform Commission The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) is the third-ranked executive department of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, which functions as a macroeconomic management agency. Established as the State Planning C ...

built the Sanha Bridge and the Ouésso- Pokola Road for Ouésso. The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by president

Denis Sassou Nguesso Denis Sassou Nguesso (born 23 November 1943) is a Congolese politician and former military officer who has served as president of the Republic of the Congo since 1997. He also previously served as president from 1979 to 1992. Sassou Nguesso he ...

. Ouésso is served by the Ouésso Airport.

Climate

Ouésso has a

tropical monsoon climate An area of tropical monsoon climate (occasionally known as a sub-equatorial, tropical wet climate or a tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate) is a tropical climate subtype that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category ' ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''Am''), bordering on a

tropical rainforest climate A tropical rainforest climate or equatorial climate is a tropical climate sub-type usually found within 10 to 15 degrees latitude of the equator. There are some other areas at higher latitudes, such as the coast of southeast Florida, United States ...

(''Af'').

Notable people

* Jane Vialle (1906–1953) French journalist, politician and women's rights activist

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ouesso Sangha Department (Republic of the Congo) Populated places in the Republic of the Congo Cameroon–Republic of the Congo border crossings