Government Accountability Office

Conflict Minerals Disclosure Rule: Sec's Actions and Stakeholder-developed Initiatives Government Accountability Office

The DRC is a vast, mineral-rich nation with an estimated population of approximately 72 million to 74 million people in an area that is roughly one-quarter the size of the United States. According to the 2012 State Department Background Notes, the estimated population for the DRC is 71.7 million, while the 2012 CIA World Factbook estimates DRC?s population at 73.6 million. It was colonized in 1885 as a personal possession of Belgian King Leopold II and administered by the Belgian government starting in 1907. It achieved independence from Belgium in 1960. For almost 30 years of the postindependence period, the DRC was known as Zaire and was ruled by an authoritarian regime under Mobutu Sese Seko. Following the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, some perpetrators of the genocide and refugees fled into eastern DRC. See figure 1 for a map of the DRC and adjoining countries.