Skip to content
YearMaps
River

Kasai

River

Kasai is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.

Feature Class
River
Coordinates
-6.24°, 20.68°
7.0
Coordinates: 6.2365° S, 20.6848° ECountry: DR CongoOpenStreetMap ↗

About Kasai

The Kasai River (Swahili: Mto Kasai, French: Kasaï [ka.sa.i]; called Cassai in Angolan Portuguese) is a left bank tributary of the Congo River, located in Central Africa. The river begins in central Angola and flows to the east until it reaches the border between Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it turns north and serves as the border until it flows into the DRC. From Ilebo, between the confluences with Lulua river and Sankuru river, the Kasai river turns to a westerly direction. The lower stretch of the river, from the confluence with Fimi river until it joins the Congo at Kwamouth northeast of Kinshasa, is also known as the Kwa(h) River.

The Kasai basin consists mainly of equatorial rainforest areas, which provide an agricultural land in a region noted for its infertile, sandy soil. It is a tributary of Congo river and diamonds are found in it. Around 60% of diamonds in Belgium go from Kasai river for cutting and shaping.

Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Kasai River (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Kasai: Key Facts

Key facts about Kasai
Length2,272 km
Average discharge12,000 m³/s
Drainage basin880,200 km²
MouthRiver Congo
Drainage systemCongo Basin
TributariesKwango River, Sankuru River, Kwilu River, Lulua, Fimi River, Lukibu, Lutshuadi River

Facts from Wikidata Q186541 (CC0).

Major River Dossiers

Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.

Connected Reaches

Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.

Water Bodies in the Catchment

Settlements Along the Reach

Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby

Surrounding Terrain

Kasai: Quick Answers

Where is Kasai?
Kasai is located in DR Congo and Angola, at 6.2365° S, 20.6848° E.
Are there dams on the Kasai?
No dam on the Kasai is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.