The +243 country code is for the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- the DRC, Congo-Kinshasa, or just "Congo" depending on who you're talking to. With roughly 100 million people spread across a country the size of Western Europe, the DRC is the largest country in sub-Saharan Africa by area and the fourth largest by population. Kinshasa alone has over 17 million people, making it the largest francophone city in the world -- bigger than Paris.

Quick answer: The country code +243 is for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). DRC mobile numbers are 9 digits after +243. A typical mobile looks like +243 81 XXX XXXX. Landlines are rare.

How to call DR Congo: quick reference

The DRC uses a domestic trunk prefix of 0. Drop it when dialing from abroad.

Calling from Dialing format
US/Canada mobile +243 [number without leading 0]
US/Canada landline 011-243-[number without leading 0]
United Kingdom (UK) 00-243-[number without leading 0]
Belgium 00-243-[number without leading 0]
France 00-243-[number without leading 0]
South Africa 00-243-[number without leading 0]
Kenya 000-243-[number without leading 0]

Belgium and France are listed because most of the Congolese diaspora is there. The colonial link with Belgium means Brussels has one of the largest Congolese communities outside Africa. France has a significant community too, along with Congolese populations in the UK, Canada (Montreal and Ottawa especially), South Africa, and the US.

Understanding DRC phone numbers

Mobile numbers in the DRC are 9 digits after +243. The first two digits tell you which carrier issued the number. Landlines exist on paper, but almost nobody uses them. The country skipped landline infrastructure and went straight to mobile, much like the rest of sub-Saharan Africa.

Mobile numbers

The DRC has four main mobile operators, and your carrier prefix tells people who you're with:

  • Vodacom Congo: Prefixes 81, 82, 83, 84, 85. The market leader. South African-owned (Vodafone subsidiary). Has the widest network coverage, especially in the east and south. M-Pesa runs on Vodacom and handles an enormous volume of money transfers.
  • Airtel Congo: Prefixes 89, 98, 99. Indian-owned (Bharti Airtel). Strong in Kinshasa and provincial capitals. Airtel Money competes with M-Pesa.
  • Orange Congo: Prefixes 90, 97. French-owned. Has grown steadily, particularly in Kinshasa and the western provinces. Orange Money is the third major mobile money service.
  • Africell Congo: Prefix 91. Lebanese-owned, entered more recently. Smaller network but aggressive pricing, especially on data.

People in the DRC routinely carry two or three SIM cards from different carriers. Coverage varies dramatically depending on where you are. Vodacom might work in one village while Airtel picks up in another. In Kinshasa, all four carriers work fine. Outside the major cities, you take what you can get.

  • Length: 9 digits after +243 (consistent across all carriers).
  • Example: Domestic 0812-345-678 becomes +243 81 234 5678 internationally.

Landline numbers

DRC landlines use area codes followed by a local number:

  • Kinshasa: Area code 12.
  • Lubumbashi: Area code 2.
  • Kisangani: Area code 3.
  • Trunk prefix: Drop the leading 0 when dialing from abroad.

In practice, you will almost never call a DRC landline. The fixed-line network barely functions outside a few government buildings and large businesses in Kinshasa. If someone gives you a DRC number, it's a mobile number.

DRC area codes reference table

These exist but matter very little for everyday calling. Almost all traffic is mobile-to-mobile. If you're calling a ministry or a hotel front desk, you might encounter one.

City Area code International format
Kinshasa 12 +243 12 XXX XXXX
Lubumbashi 2 +243 2 XXX XXXX
Kisangani 3 +243 3 XXX XXXX
Mbuji-Mayi 4 +243 4 XXX XXXX
Goma 53 +243 53 XXX XXXX
Bukavu 54 +243 54 XXX XXXX
Matadi 31 +243 31 XXX XXXX
Kananga 6 +243 6 XXX XXXX
Likasi 26 +243 26 XXX XXXX
Kolwezi 27 +243 27 XXX XXXX

Don't confuse +243 with +242

This is the single most common mistake. +243 is the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, capital Kinshasa, 100 million people). +242 is the Republic of the Congo (capital Brazzaville, about 6 million people). They are completely different countries.

Code Country Capital Population
+243 DR Congo (Congo-Kinshasa) Kinshasa ~100 million
+242 Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) Brazzaville ~6 million

The two capitals sit directly across the Congo River from each other -- you can see Brazzaville from Kinshasa and vice versa. They're the closest pair of national capitals in the world. But the phone systems are entirely separate. If you dial +242 when you meant +243, you'll reach someone in a different country.

The naming confusion goes deep. "Congo" on its own could mean either country. Locals typically say "Congo-Kinshasa" or "Congo-Brazzaville" to distinguish them. In diaspora communities, "Congolais" almost always means someone from the DRC, since the DRC's population is roughly 17 times larger.

Two time zones, one country

The DRC is so large it spans two time zones. Western DRC including Kinshasa uses West Africa Time (WAT, UTC+1). Eastern DRC including Lubumbashi, Goma, and Bukavu uses Central Africa Time (CAT, UTC+2). Neither observes daylight saving time.

This matters for calling. If you're trying to reach someone in Kinshasa and someone in Lubumbashi, they're an hour apart from each other despite being in the same country.

Your location Time difference (Kinshasa) Time difference (Lubumbashi)
US East Coast (EST) +6 hours +7 hours
US East Coast (EDT) +5 hours +6 hours
UK (GMT) +1 hour +2 hours
UK (BST) Same time +1 hour
Belgium/France (CET) Same time +1 hour
Belgium/France (CEST) -1 hour Same time
South Africa (SAST) -1 hour Same time
Kenya (EAT) -2 hours -1 hour

Tip: Kinshasa is on the same time as Brussels/Paris in winter (CET) and one hour behind in summer (CEST). That's convenient for the huge Congolese diaspora in Belgium -- evening calls after work line up well.

Mobile money: how the DRC moves cash

Mobile money is the financial system for most people in the DRC. Banks exist, but the majority of the population doesn't have a bank account. Mobile money fills that gap completely.

  • M-Pesa (Vodacom): The dominant platform. Based on the Kenyan original but adapted for the DRC market. Handles everything from paying for groceries at a street stall to receiving salary payments. M-Pesa agents -- small kiosks where you deposit or withdraw cash -- are everywhere, even in small towns.
  • Airtel Money: The main competitor. Works the same way. Some people keep both M-Pesa and Airtel Money accounts active because their contacts are split across carriers.
  • Orange Money: Third player. Growing in western DRC.

Diaspora remittances often land in mobile money accounts. Services like WorldRemit and Sendwave can deposit directly into M-Pesa or Airtel Money wallets, which is much faster than wiring money to a bank. The recipient can cash out at any agent kiosk within minutes.

The carriers: Vodacom, Airtel, Orange, Africell

Vodacom Congo is the market leader and has been since it launched in 2002. Coverage is strongest in eastern DRC (the Katanga and Kivu provinces) and Kinshasa. Vodacom's parent company is South African, so if you've used Vodacom in South Africa or Tanzania, the experience is similar. M-Pesa on Vodacom handles a staggering volume of transactions -- for many Congolese, their Vodacom number IS their financial identity.

Airtel Congo is the second largest carrier. Airtel has invested heavily in Kinshasa and the provincial capitals. Coverage outside urban areas is spottier than Vodacom's, but Airtel often has better data prices. Some people keep an Airtel SIM specifically for data.

Orange Congo entered later and has been growing in western DRC. If you're calling someone in Kinshasa or Bas-Congo province, there's a reasonable chance they're on Orange.

Africell Congo is the newest and smallest of the four. It competes on price, particularly for data bundles. Coverage is concentrated in Kinshasa and a few other cities.

Calling eastern DRC: conflict zones

Eastern DRC -- particularly North Kivu (Goma), South Kivu (Bukavu), and Ituri province -- has experienced armed conflict for decades. This directly affects phone service.

What callers should know:

  • Towers get destroyed: Cell towers in conflict areas are frequent targets and collateral damage. Service can disappear for days or weeks in specific areas during fighting.
  • Goma and Bukavu usually work: The two main eastern cities have had consistent mobile service even during periods of heavy fighting in surrounding areas. If your contact is in Goma proper, calls generally go through.
  • Rural eastern DRC is different: Villages outside the major towns may have no coverage at all, or coverage that comes and goes depending on which armed group controls the area and whether they've left the towers alone.
  • People move: Millions of people in eastern DRC are internally displaced. A contact who was in Goma last month might be in a displacement camp with no phone charging and no signal. Don't assume a disconnected number means the person changed it.
  • Try at different times: Network congestion in eastern DRC can be severe. If a call doesn't connect at midday, try early morning or late evening when fewer people are on the network.

The diaspora connection

The Congolese diaspora is concentrated in a few specific places:

  • Belgium: The largest Congolese community in Europe. Brussels' Matongé neighbourhood (around Porte de Namur) is the centre of Congolese life in Belgium -- restaurants, hair salons, music shops, and money transfer agents. The colonial history means many Congolese speak French and have family connections going back generations.
  • France: Paris has a large community, concentrated in the northern suburbs and around Château d'Eau/Strasbourg-Saint-Denis.
  • United Kingdom: London, particularly in southeast London (Peckham, Lewisham, Woolwich). A mix of French-speaking and Lingala-speaking communities.
  • Canada: Montreal is the primary destination (French-speaking), with smaller communities in Ottawa and Toronto.
  • United States: Scattered communities, with notable populations in the DC metro area, Dallas, and Columbus, Ohio. Many entered as refugees.
  • South Africa: Johannesburg and Cape Town. Some came for work, others as asylum seekers. The Congolese community in South Africa is large but faces xenophobic pressure.
  • East Africa: Significant Congolese communities in Kampala (Uganda), Nairobi (Kenya), and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), often refugees from eastern DRC.

Calls to +243 numbers are a daily routine in all these communities. Many diaspora members support multiple family members back home, and a phone call to check in is inseparable from the money transfer that usually accompanies it.

Internet and calling apps

WhatsApp is the dominant messaging and calling app in the DRC, like most of francophone Africa. If your contact has mobile data or wifi, WhatsApp voice and video calls are the cheapest way to communicate.

Facebook Messenger is also widely used. Facebook has deep penetration in the DRC, partly because many mobile plans include "free Facebook" data that doesn't count against your bundle. This means some people can receive Facebook messages even when they've run out of regular data.

Mobile data is available in Kinshasa and the provincial capitals (3G and 4G from all major carriers), but coverage drops fast outside urban areas. In rural DRC -- which is most of the country by area -- many people have phones but use them only for voice calls and SMS because data either doesn't exist or is too expensive relative to income.

Power is the other constraint. Kinshasa and Lubumbashi have patchy electricity. Outside the big cities, most phone charging happens at small businesses that charge a fee to plug in your phone, powered by generators or solar panels. When someone's phone is off, they might simply be waiting for their next charge.

Four languages, one phone system

The DRC has four national languages -- Lingala, Swahili, Tshiluba, and Kikongo -- plus French as the official language. Which language you hear depends on where you're calling:

  • Kinshasa and western DRC: Lingala. Carrier voice prompts in this region are typically in French and Lingala.
  • Eastern DRC (Goma, Bukavu, Lubumbashi): Swahili. The eastern provinces share a Swahili-speaking zone with Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, and parts of Uganda.
  • Kasai provinces (Mbuji-Mayi, Kananga): Tshiluba.
  • Bas-Congo/Kongo Central (Matadi): Kikongo.

If you call a +243 number and hear an automated message you don't understand, it's probably in one of these languages or French. The carrier and region determine the language of system messages.

Mobile vs. landline: how to tell the difference

You can tell by the digits after +243:

  • Starts with 8 or 9 (81-85, 89, 90, 91, 97, 98, 99): A mobile number.
  • Starts with 1-6: A landline number (area code).

Mobile numbers account for well over 99% of all calls in the DRC. If you have a +243 number, it's almost certainly mobile.

Dialing examples

Here are practical examples for calling different types of DRC numbers:

Example 1: Calling a Kinshasa mobile (Vodacom) from the US

  • DRC number (domestic): 0812-345-678
  • From a US mobile: +243 81 234 5678
  • From a US landline: 011 243 81 234 5678

Example 2: Calling a Goma mobile (Airtel) from Belgium

  • DRC number (domestic): 0998-765-432
  • From Belgium: 00 243 99 876 5432

Example 3: Calling a Lubumbashi mobile from France

  • DRC number (domestic): 0897-654-321
  • From France: 00 243 89 765 4321

Example 4: Calling from South Africa

  • DRC number (domestic): 0901-234-567
  • From South Africa: 00 243 90 123 4567

Common mistakes to avoid

Here are the most common mistakes when dialing the +243 country code:

  • Dialing +242 instead of +243: +242 is Congo-Brazzaville. +243 is Congo-Kinshasa (DRC). One digit, wrong country. If you hear a French greeting from a much smaller-sounding city, check your dialing.
  • Keeping the leading 0: DRC mobile numbers start with 0 domestically (e.g., 081...). Drop it for international calls. Dial +243 81, not +243 081.
  • Wrong carrier prefix assumptions: The carrier prefix (81-85, 89, 90, etc.) is part of the number. Don't drop it thinking it's an area code.
  • Assuming the phone is dead: If someone doesn't answer, they might be in a no-signal zone, out of battery with no charging option, or dealing with network congestion. Try again later, especially at different times of day.
  • Time zone confusion: Ask whether your contact is in western DRC (UTC+1) or eastern DRC (UTC+2) before scheduling a call. The country spans two time zones.

Cheapest ways to call +243 numbers

International calls to the DRC through major carriers run $2-$5 per minute. That adds up fast for diaspora members who call home regularly. Options to reduce the cost:

  • VoIP services: Services like CallSky.io offer per-minute rates well below traditional carriers for calls to DRC mobile and landline numbers. Check our international calling rates.
  • WhatsApp/Messenger: Free when both sides have data. The cheapest option, but depends on the person in DRC having a working data connection.
  • Calling cards: Still popular in Congolese diaspora communities, especially in Brussels and Paris. Shops in Matongé and Château d'Eau sell cards specifically for +243 calls. Check our guide to the best apps for WiFi calling.
  • Callback services: Some diaspora members use callback services where the system calls both parties, routing through cheaper lines.

For people in rural DRC without data access, a regular voice call to their +243 mobile number is the only way to reach them.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

What country has the +243 country code?

The +243 country code is for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as Congo-Kinshasa.

How many digits is a DR Congo phone number?

DRC mobile numbers are 9 digits after +243. The first two digits indicate the carrier (e.g., 81-85 for Vodacom, 89/98/99 for Airtel).

What is the area code for Kinshasa?

The area code for Kinshasa is 12. Internationally, dial +243 12 followed by the local number. But almost all calls to Kinshasa go to mobile numbers, not landlines.

How do I call DR Congo from the USA?

From a mobile phone, dial +243 followed by the DRC number (drop the leading 0). From a landline, dial the US exit code 011, then 243, then the number.

What time zone is DR Congo in?

The DRC spans two time zones. Western DRC including Kinshasa is on West Africa Time (UTC+1). Eastern DRC including Lubumbashi, Goma, and Bukavu is on Central Africa Time (UTC+2).

What is the difference between +243 and +242?

+243 is the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, capital Kinshasa, ~100 million people). +242 is the Republic of the Congo (capital Brazzaville, ~6 million people). Different countries, one digit apart.

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