[3] Historically, Basankusu holds some stories of exploitation during the times of the Abir Congo Company but was also the gateway to much of Equateur Province for those individuals involved in the reforms which came from the Casement Report and the Berlin conference of 1884-5.

[9] The reforms that followed the Casement Report, including those that concerned ABIR at Basankusu, set the foundation for the colonial Belgian state of Congo.

[8] The original Roman Catholic cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, built by Jan de Koning, a brother in the Mill Hill Missionaries society, during World War II, Demolition in 2012; it was rebuilt to a very similar design.

[19] Being close to a major river and enduring frequent, heavy tropical rainfall, Basankusu is prone to the damaging effects of water.

[2] Basankusu's distance from the capital Kinshasa and the recent upheaval due to the First and Second Congo Wars have made trade with the outside world difficult.

However, the distribution of local products, such as maize, cassava, rice, palm oil, peanuts, and rubber, is starting to increase as more river-boats make the journey from the capital.

[27] Jef Dupain, an African Wildlife Foundation (AWF)[28] primatologist, who has spent more than a decade on the frontlines in the Congo working with bonobos, has also stated the devastating impact a lack of transport for trade has on conservation: "You can't just tell the local people not to eat bushmeat.

During the military conflict of 1998–2003, Basankusu was in rebel (Movement for the Liberation of Congo, MLC) hands and cut off from trade and relief from the rest of the world.

The metal Bailey bridges, which span ravines and streams along the roads, are also in very poor condition and in danger of collapse in some cases.

The cost of a flight, however, is beyond the means of most private individuals; passengers tend to be people working for NGOs or businesses in Kinshasa.

The installation of two mobile phone masts, in 2006, each with its own generator and watchman, has made a large difference in the lives of many people.

The phone networks, one of which is the South African company Vodacom, enable people to keep in touch with family and friends who have migrated to Kinshasa or further afield.

[33] The chicken meat is coated in the rich moambe sauce and is usually accompanied by rice, cooked cassava leaves (mpondu), and chili pepper (pili-pili).

These plots of land are often only partially cleared, with house-sized termite hills and the trunks of felled trees left to supply firewood for the year's cooking.

The marketplace[34] is a place for buying and selling locally grown foods and also foodstuffs from further afield, which have come up the river from centres of import, such as Kinshasa.

Bread, produced in cottage bakeries, is available, as is locally grown and imported rice, although neither of these products is comparable to cassava in popularity.

Conservation groups are concerned that, with the rise in the human population, many animal species are in danger of extinction because of the trade in bushmeat.

In 1998, Jeff Dupain and others catalogued the types of bushmeat available in the two main Basankusu markets; they interviewed the stallholders to find out where the animals were hunted.

The lingua franca, Lingala (also a Bantu language), is spoken to cross the tribal divide – as it is in a great deal of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Migration is partly due to hardship caused by the lack of river transport and the poor access to everyday goods that has resulted.

They produce unusual howls, yodels, and other undulated vocalisations, in contrast to the characteristic bark of modern dog breeds.

Over centuries, its structure and type have been fixed by adaptation to its habitat, as well as use – primarily net hunting in extremely dense old-growth forest vegetation.

Although these hunting dogs are often mixed with European breeds in Basankusu, pure Basenjis can be found in villages further upriver.

Having been in an area of fighting during the military conflicts that took place from 1998 onwards, the population is still recovering from the resulting long-term effects.

Basankusu was captured by the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) on 29 November 1999, in a takeover that happened very quickly with no civilian casualties.

[48] In 2015, Francis Hannaway, a British national, opened a therapeutic feeding centre in Basankusu, together with a team of 12 local volunteers.

The town falls within the western limits of what has become known as the Maringa-Lopori-Wamba Landscape,[50] a proposed conservation area in the basin of the Maringa and Lopori rivers that includes the Luo Scientific Reserve around the village of Wamba.

Project stakeholders include the Max Planck Institute, African Wildlife Foundation,[28] Source de Lomako (SoLo), Pygmy Chimpanzee Protection Fund, Bonobo Conservation Initiative,[51] and Milwaukee Zoological Society.

In certain places, the density of Congo peafowl (Afropavo congensis) – a species endemic to the centre and northeast of the Congolese forests, with feathers of deep blue with a metallic green and violet tinge – is probably the highest in the country.

Other large mammals include the elephant (Loxodonta africana), the buffalo (Syncerus caffer), the bongo (Tragelaphus euryceros) – which is an antelope characterised by a striking reddish-brown coat, white-yellow stripes, and long, slightly spiralled horns – the African golden cat (Profelis aurata), and the leopard (Panthera pardus).