Likouala-Mossaka

The Likouala-Mossaka (or Likouala River) (Mto Likouala) is a river in the Republic of the Congo. It is a tributary of the Congo River, which it enters to the east of the town of Mossaka.

Location
The Likouala-Mossaka is a right tributary of the Congo into which it flows at Mossaka about 650 km from its source. Its basin adjoins that of the Sangha River to the north and the Ogooué River in Gabon to the west. To the south it adjoins the basin of the Alima, which has hardly any left tributaries. The lower Sangha, the Likouala-aux-Herbes and Likouala-Mossaka rivers flow through the Congolese Cuvette, a huge depression with an equatorial climate. The soil of this region is sandy or clayey quaternary fluvial alluvia. Vegetation is dense, humid, shady forest that partly floods during the high water season.

Hydrology
Between 1951 and 1993 annual rainfall in the Likouala-Mossaka basin was 1689 mm and average discharge at the Makoua gauging station was 216 m3/s. The basin above this point covered 14100 km2.

European exploration
Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza explored the upper part of the Likouala-Mossaka, the Licona, in August 1878. Albert Dolisie entered its mouth in 1884. Giacomo Savorgnan di Brazzà descended the river when he returned from his exploration of the north in December 1885. In 1899 the whole Likouala-Mossaka basin was granted to the Tréchot brothers who had created the Compagnie Française du Haut-Congo (CFHC) for its operation. In 1908 there were four administrative posts in a territory of about 80000 km2. Seventy-two villages had to pay 44,648 francs in taxes. Until 1909 the French administration of the Likouala-Mossaka basin was very light, and little had been done to develop its resources.