The Kabompo River is one of the main
tributaries
A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream ('' main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which the ...
of the upper
Zambezi River. It flows entirely in
Zambia
Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...
, rising to the east of the source of the Zambezi, in
North-Western Province along the watershed between the Zambezi and
Congo river
The Congo River, formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second-longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the third-largest river in the world list of rivers by discharge, by discharge volume, following the Amazon Ri ...
basins which also forms the border between Zambia and
DR Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...
. It is the second deepest river in Africa and one of the top five in the world.
Geography
The Kabompo River flows south-west through
miombo woodland
Miombo woodland is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome (in the World Wide Fund for Nature scheme) located in central and southern tropical Africa. It includes three woodland savanna ecoregions (listed below) charac ...
, then a remote
Cryptosepalum dry forest ecoregion, with the
West Lunga National Park on its west bank. After flowing past the town of
Kabompo, it develops a swampy floodplain up to 5 km wide. The
Kabompo Ferry on its lower course carries the main north–south gravel highway on the eastern side of the Zambezi. The river enters the Zambezi north of the town of
Lukulu, at the north end of the
Barotse Floodplain. Its main tributaries are the West Lunga River which flows from the north, and the Dongwe River from the east.
See also
*
List of rivers of Africa
References
Rivers of Zambia
Tributaries of the Zambezi River
Barotse Floodplain
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