Republic of Congo

Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville)

The nation today known as the Republic of Congo (République du Congo) was originally inhabited by Pygmy peoples, later displaced by migrating Bantu-speaking tribes, in particular the Bakongo. Between the 14th and 16th centuries, several Bantu kingdoms would emerge in the region, controlling trade up and down the Congo river and eventually establishing commercial relationships with Portuguese and French traders seeking sources for gold, ivory and slaves. As the power of the Bantu kingdoms declined, the region of present day Congo came under French administration in the 1880s. French Equatorial Africa (AEF) was organized in 1908, comprising Middle Congo (modern Congo), Gabon, Chad, and Oubangui-Chari (modern Central African Republic), administered through the capital of Brazzaville. The nation achieved independence as the Congo Republic on August 15, 1960, electing its first president - Fulbert Youlou - who would shortly thereafter be ousted in a political uprising and replaced by Alphonse Massamba-Débat who would embrace so-called "scientific-socialism" as the nation's constitutional ideology.

Another coup d'etat followed in August 1968, replacing Massamba-Débat with Marien Ngouabi, who proclaimed Congo to be a People's Republic. During this period, strong relations were established with the USSR, China, North Korea and North Vietnam. Ngouabi was assassinated on March 16, 1977 and replaced by Joachim Yhombi-Opango, who in turn was ousted two years later, with Denis Sassou Nguesso assuming the position of president. Under Sassou, the country became even further aligned with the Communist Bloc and signed a twenty-year friendship pact with the Soviet Union. The dictatorship would continue well into the present era.

In June 1997, a four month armed conflict sparked by political rivalries destroyed much of the capital (Brazzaville) and cost tens of thousands of civilian lives. A military intervention by Angola in October of that year re-installed Sassou as president. He would be re-elected in 2002, but discontent over the one-party system and questionable electorcal processes instigated a rebellion in the Pool region which ended by peace treaty in April 2003. Sassou remains president of the Republic of Congo, although reports on the 2009 elections continue to launchy accusations of fraud and irregularities.

The Army is the largest branch of the military in the Republic of Congo, followed by the small and poorly equipped Air Force (Force Aérienne Congolaise), a very small Navy, a battalion-sized Presidential Guard (direction générale de la securité présidentielle - DGSP), and around 2,000 members of the National Gendarmerie.

Camouflage Patterns of the Republic of Congo

• During the 1960s, some units of the Republic of Congo armed forces wore French tenue du leopard camouflage uniforms. No doubt extending from its long-standing relationship to France, the pattern fell into disuse by the late 1970s.

• A unique splotch or spot camouflage design was in use with military units of this country during the 1970s, possibly restricted to an elite unit such as the Garde Republicaine.""

• During the high period of its relationship with the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact, much of the nation's war materiel was supplied by Eastern Europe. Between this 1970-1980s period, photographic documentation illustrates some members of the Armed Forces wearing East German M58 Flachtarnenmuster camouflage. It is unknown to what extent the uniforms were distributed, but they were not the same design as those worn by East Germany military forces.

• The standard camouflage pattern of the current era is a copy of the US m81 woodland design, produced in Asia. As with many other African nations, the source for uniforms over a period of time changes and, therefore, one may encounter slight variations in dye batches and uniform styles within the same unit, reflecting different periods of issue to different groups of military personnel.

• This nation also publicly supports the World Conservation Society (WCS) efforts to combat poaching, and the government has supported an Ecoguard program in cooperation with other central African countries. Formed with monetary assistance from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Ecoguards of this nation operate primarily in the vast Odzala-Kokoua and Nouabalé-Ndoki National Parks. Members of this service have been outfitted variously in DPM, woodland, lizard and commercial tiger stripes designs.

• An odd variation of the French Europe Centre or CE woodland pattern emerged during the early 2000s, modified by embedding the national coat of arms in black ink within the khaki areas of the pattern. In addition to the logo, the pattern also incorporates a silhouette of the country's geographical boundaries next to the coat of arms. This design may have been created during the Civil War era (1997-1999) to stand out against the use of older, standard CE pattern camouflage uniforms by insurgents, but production numbers must have been limited as it does not appear to have reached significant numbers of armed forces personnel.

Members of the DGSP (Presidential Guard) adopted a copy of the Italian Army's vegetato camouflage design as recently as 2018.

• Also worn by some units of the Army is a copy of The French CE woodland pattern.

• At some point in 2024, members of the Presidential Guard (direction générale de la securité présidentielle) began wearing a Chinese-made "copy" of USMC MARPAT camouflage, having a slight color variance and similiar to that encountered in Iraq and other parts of the world. Whether this will completely replace the unit's use of vegetato remains to be seen.