Lualaba Province

province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Key facts

Country: DR Congo
Established: 2015 ( 2015 )
Named after: Lualaba River
Capital and largest city: Kolwezi
Governor: Fifi Masuka
Total: 121,308 km (46,837 sq mi)
Rank: 8th
Density: 26.241/km (67.965/sq mi)
Native: Balunda • Kaonde • Baluntu • Baluba • Chokwe • Garanganze (Bayeke) • Balwalwa
Time zone: UTC+2 ( CAT )
License plate code: CGO / 14
Official language: French
National language

Article

Lualaba Province (Mkoa wa Lualaba, in Swahili) is a province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo created in the 2015 repartitioning when the former Katanga province was split up into four new provinces—Lualaba, Haut-Katanga, Haut-Lomami, and Tanganyika. Lualaba was formed from the Lualaba and Kolwezi districts. Kolwezi was a hybrid city/district which was separated from its two territories and the city proper became the capital of the new province. The 2020 population was estimated to be 3,183,300.

Tree-cover loss year in Lualaba, 2001-2024, from the Global Forest Change dataset. Along with Haut-Katanga, Lualaba is in the Copperbelt of Central Africa. The Congo is only behind Chile, Peru, and China in the largest amount of copper produced globally.