The game itself never really adequately explains where it takes place. Is this a country? A region? Somewhere real? Somewhere fictitious? The Democratic Republic of Unspecified? All you ever get is "Africa", and even in the later parts of the game you find notes saying "I arrived yesterday in Africa" and "Umbrella established a facility in Africa". It's a big continent, guys.
Check out Kat's tumblr for non-fuzzy anime art.
Link
Motsaenggin
According to the Resident Evil wiki, RE5 takes place in the Kijuju Autonomous Zone which is located in an unidentified West African nation, and that the native language there is Swahili. Maybe they just anonymized the entire game's location due to the allegations of racism raised towards the game before it was released, I dunno!
Cool drawing regardless. OuO