Pokola

Pokola is a town and a commune^[1] located in the northern Republic of Congo in the Sangha Department. In 2023, the town had a population of 28,570.^[2]

Pokola
Town and commune
Pokola in 2023
Pokola Location in the Republic of the Congo
Coordinates: 1°24′42″N 16°19′22″E
Country	Republic of the Congo
Department	Sangha Department
District	Kabo District
Commune	Pokola
Area
• Total	3.6 sq mi (9.3 km2)
Population  (2023)
• Total	28,570
• Density	8,000/sq mi (3,100/km2)

Economy

Pokola relies on extractive industries, such as logging and hunting, for its economy.^[3]

Bushmeat

The Pokola area has not been anthropized, making agriculture difficult.^[3]

Because of the little access to farmland, Pokola residents rely on illegal bushmeat for food,^[4][5] with over 5% of meals eaten in Pokola being bushmeat in 2002, a rise from 1% in 2001.^[6] Pokola is hunted for ivory to then trade in Ouésso and Cameroon.^[7] Bushmeat is often brought and sold directly in the city.^[8]

Local police rarely interfere with the bushmeat trade, and the United States Agency for International Development had performed investigations to slow trade.^[5][9]

Logging

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,^[10] and funds most of the construction in the town.^[11]

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.^[12]

Transportation

Pokola lies along the Sangha river, and is connected to Ouésso by ferry,^[13] 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.^[14]