Which river is the second-longest in Africa after the Nile?

The Congo River is the second-longest river in Africa after the Nile.

The Congo runs through the heart of equatorial Africa and drains a vast basin centered on the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It reaches the Atlantic Ocean on Africa’s west coast and is one of the continent’s defining geographic features.

The river is commonly estimated at about 4,700 kilometers long, although measurements vary depending on which headwater stream is counted. Its broader Congo–Lualaba–Luvua–Luapula–Chambeshi system is longer than the main river alone, which explains why different reference works sometimes give different figures.

Length is not the Congo’s only distinction. It carries more water than any African river and ranks among the world’s greatest rivers by discharge. It is also famous for its exceptional depth and for flowing through the Congo Basin rainforest, one of the planet’s major tropical forest regions. The Zambezi, Niger, and Orange are important African rivers, but none is longer than the Congo.