Official Name: | Pokola |
Settlement Type: | Town and commune |
Pushpin Map: | Republic of the Congo |
Pushpin Label Position: | bottom |
Pushpin Map Caption: | Location in the Republic of the Congo |
Subdivision Type: | Country |
Subdivision Name: | Republic of the Congo |
Subdivision Type1: | Department |
Subdivision Name1: | Sangha Department |
Subdivision Type2: | District |
Subdivision Name2: | Kabo District |
Subdivision Type3: | Commune |
Subdivision Name3: | Pokola |
Unit Pref: | Imperial |
Population As Of: | 2023 |
Population Total: | 23283 |
Population Density Km2: | auto |
Population Blank1 Title: | Ethnicities |
Population Blank2 Title: | Religions |
Coordinates: | 1.4117°N 16.3228°W |
Area Total Km2: | 9.3 |
Pokola is a town and a commune[1] located in the northern Republic of Congo in the Sangha Department. In 2018, the town had a population of 14,726.
Pokola relies on extractive industries, such as logging and hunting, for its economy.[2]
The Pokola area has not been anthropized, making agriculture difficult.
Because of the little access to farmland, Pokola residents rely on illegal bushmeat for food,[3] [4] with over 5% of meals eaten in Pokola being bushmeat in 2002, a rise from 1% in 2001.[5] Pokola is hunted for ivory to then trade in Ouésso and Cameroon.[6] Bushmeat is often brought and sold directly in the city.[7]
Local police rarely interfere with the bushmeat trade, and the United States Agency for International Development often has to perform investigations to slow down trade.[8]
The town is the headquarters of one of the largest logging companies in the country, the Congolaise Industrielle des Bois (CIB), a subsidiary of a Singapore group. The company owns 1.8 million hectares of forest,[9] and funds most of the construction in the town.[10]
In 2010, the Parliament of the Republic of the Congo passed a law to protect the country's Baka people and their lands. This made it more difficult to harvest wood.[11]
Pokola lies along the Sangha river, and is connected to Ouésso by ferry,[12] until 2023, when the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission built the Sanha Bridge and the Ouésso-Pokola Road, which connected the Pokola with Ouésso. The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by president Denis Sassou Nguesso.[13]