River · Angola, DR Congo
Kasai
The Kasai is the largest tributary of the Congo by the amount of water it brings. It rises on the Bié Plateau in Angola, forms part of the border with the DR Congo and joins the Congo at Kwamouth.
Picture credit: Sagar Bhatt (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Kasai?
The river starts here: Bié Plateau, central Angola.
It ends in the Congo River at Kwamouth, DR Congo.
Countries on the river: Angola, DR Congo.
The story behind it
The Kasai starts on the high Bié Plateau in central Angola. Then it turns north and, for several hundred kilometres, forms the border between Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Along this stretch it crashes over rapids and waterfalls such as the Mai-Munene Falls, around which goods once had to be carried by train. In the south of its basin the river flows through savanna with strips of forest along the banks, in the north through equatorial rainforest. At Tshikapa, diamonds were discovered in the early 1900s, and diamond mining is still the city's main business today. Boats travel the waterway of about 820 kilometres between Ilebo and Kinshasa. On its way the Kasai collects big rivers such as the Kwango and the Sankuru, and even water from Lake Mai-Ndombe. It joins the Congo about 200 kilometres upstream of Pool Malebo.
Questions children ask
How long is the Kasai?
The Kasai is about 2 153 km long. Some sources give about 2 272 km, because the length depends on how it is measured.
Which countries does the Kasai flow through?
It flows through Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. For part of its course it forms the border between the two countries.
Why is the Kasai so important for the Congo?
The Kasai brings more water to the Congo than any other tributary. Together with its tributaries it also offers about 3 500 km of waterways on which boats can travel.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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