Congo River and "Congo" is the preferred English name in 19th-century literature, although references to "Zahir" or "Zaire" as the name used by the inhabitants remained common. The Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo are named after it, as was the previous Republic of the Congo which had gained independence in 1960 from the Belgian Congo. The Republic of Zaire during 1971–1997 was also named after the river, after its name in French and Portuguese. The Congo's drainage basin covers , an area larger than India. The Congo's discharge at its mouth ranges from , with an
Zaire ebolavirus Zaire ebolavirus The species Zaire ebolavirus is a virological taxon included in the genus "Ebolavirus", family "Filoviridae", order "Mononegavirales". The species has a single virus member, Ebola virus (EBOV), and it is the type species for the genus "Ebolavirus". The members of the species are called Zaire ebolaviruses. The name "Zaire ebolavirus" is derived from "Zaire" and the taxonomic suffix "ebolavirus" (which denotes an ebolavirus species and refers to the Ebola River). According to the rules for taxon naming established by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), the name "Zaire ebolavirus" is always to be capitalized, italicized, and