Kikwit
Province
Kikwit is the largest city of Bandundu province in the southwest of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It lies on the River Kouilou, about 540 km south-east of Kinshasa.
Geography
The estimates of Kikwits population vary widely. According to Encarta, the population in 1994 was estimated at 182 142, while other sources of about 1 million inhabitants in 1995 speak. The science journalist Laurie Garrett wrote in 1995 250000-500000 inhabitants. Estimates for 2004 are 233700-294210 inhabitants.
The city is located at the extreme navigable point of the Kouilou and has been since the early 20th century, a commercial and administrative center. It has an airport. Since 2011 Kikwit is again reliably connected through the renewed National Road 1 (N1 ) with the capital Kinshasa. The 560 km long section, which was financed by the World Bank and the European Union, has greatly improved the living conditions of the inhabitants Kikwits and the environment.
History
In the First Congo War, the town on 30 April 1997 was taken by the units of the insurgents on their way to Kinshasa.
Under the Constitution of 2005, after which the former province of Bandundu is divided into three provinces, Kikwit should be the capital of the new province Kwilu. This constitutional amendment has now been withdrawn.
Culture, health and education
Kikwit being the bishop of the Apostolic Vicariate in 1959 raised by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kikwit.
During an outbreak of the Ebola virus in Kikwit died in 1995 250 of 315 sick people. Medical care in 2009 was still catastrophic. At the hospital, Hôpital Général du Kikwit example, decreed the operating room does not have running water. Power, there was the hour. Only the children's ward is reasonably acceptable, since the German aid organization " Hammer Forum " involved there.
In Kikwit is the university of the province of Bandundu. Your only library has 6161 books (as of Dec. 2008) together for all departments.