River
Mbomou River
800 km from source to mouth · Central African Republic, South Sudan and DR Congo.
Central African Republic, South Sudan and DR CongoFlows into Ubangi River2nd longest in Central African Republic
In numbers
Length
800km
Average flow
1,300m³/s
Basin
120,000km²
Drop
283m
from 680 m to 397 m
Countries
3
The journey
From source to mouth
800 km of river and 3 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 680 m
- 337 kmZemio17,829 people
- 533 kmChinko Rivertributary
- 679 kmBangassou54,059 people
- 800 kmUbangi Riverat 397 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River
At the mouth it carries 1,317 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 1.9 seconds. It drops from 680 m to 397 m, 0.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 120,000 km², about the size of KP. 381,000 people live in it. Highest water: from August to October; lowest: from February to April. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- BangassouLargest city on its banks · 54,059 people
- Gbadolite Airport (BDT)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 211 km from the city
- On the water8 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From December to FebruaryThe best months to visit
Mbomou River, month by month
Highest water: from August to October
Lowest water: from February to April. Best months to visit: from December to February.
From about 410 m³/s in the lowest month to 2,800 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
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The basin
Mbomou River: the basin in numbers
168,608 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 381,000people live in the basin
- 2/km²people per km²
- 637maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,544mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 24.7°Caverage air temperature
- 37%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 58% Forest
- 2% Cropland
- 5% Pasture
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Mbomou River: what you find on the way
- 8Ferry piersPort Mbomou and 7 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.5 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Mbomou River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (1)
Also: Chinko River
In the same basin
Angola4,700 km41,800 m³/sKasai River
Republic of the Congo2,272 km12,000 m³/sKwango RiverDR Congo1,770 km2,700 m³/sUeleDR Congo1,210 km1,500 m³/sLomami RiverDR Congo1,280 km3,000 m³/sSanghaRepublic of the Congo785 km2,500 m³/sEbola RiverDR Congo250 km320 m³/sLuvua RiverDR Congo350 km600 m³/sSankuru RiverDR Congo1,200 km1,500 m³/sAruwimi RiverDR Congo1,300 km1,600 m³/sWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q171440) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
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