Kasai-Oriental is one of 25 new provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo specified in the country's 2005 Constitution (effective 18 February 2006), under Article 2.[1] It was to be created from country's the existing 10 provinces within 36 months (18 February 2009), according to Article 226.[2] As of October 2010, this had not taken place.[3] Until 2009 it was ruled as the Tshilenge District.
The capital of the province is Mbuji-Mayi,[4] formerly Bakwanga, on the Sankuru river.
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Kasai-Oriental is inhabited by members of the Luba tribe.
Congo obtained independence from Belgium in 1960. Friction with Congo's other ethnic groups and encouragement by Belgian corporations hoping to keep their mining concessions led to the secession of the province of South Kasai as a separate state headed by Albert Kalonji.
After being repulsed, the Congo occupied the province in September 1961. Several thousand people were killed during the "pacification" of South Kasai, which lasted through the spring of 1962.
The population of Mbuji-Mayi grew rapidly with the immigration of Luba people from other parts of the country.
The region in which Mbuji-Mayi is situated annually produces one-tenth in weight of the world's industrial diamonds, with mining managed by the Société Minière de Bakwanga. This is the largest accumulation of diamonds in the world, more concentrated than those at Kimberley, South Africa. Mbuji-Mayi handles most of the industrial diamonds produced in the Congo.
The province consists of the following five territories:
French is the official language. Tshiluba is one of the four national languages of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Tshiluba is spoken by about 6.3 million people in the Kasai-Oriental, Kasai-Occidental and Lulua provinces.
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