Understanding the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Push for MONUSCO’s Departure
Many Congolese dread the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers, believing government forces are unable to provide security in the eastern DRC.
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Many Congolese dread the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers, believing government forces are unable to provide security in the eastern DRC.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s chaotic elections failed to break the country’s long legacy of fraudulent polls and plunged the government into a fresh crisis of legitimacy.
To break the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s long legacy of stolen elections, the country’s independent oversight institutions, civil society, and media will need the backing of SADC and international democratic actors.
The DRC's general elections originally scheduled for December 23, two years overdue, face serious credibility challenges. The repercussions of a faulty vote could further dampen the prospects for improved security and stability in the region and erode democratic norms across the continent.
Joseph Kabila seeks to maintain the status quo as the Democratic Republic of the Congo enters a transition amid growing instability.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo mining sector is booming but more than $750 million in mining revenues have disappeared between 2013 and 2015. The taxes, paid by mining companies to state coffers vanished into Gecamines, the country’s dysfunctional state-owned mining company and various tax agencies. This investigation finds credible evidence that at least some of the funds ended up in accounts linked to President Joseph Kabila himself, his family, and corrupt networks with links to the regime.
The Africa Center for Strategic Studies has compiled a selection of its analyses that identify the roots of the crisis in the DRC and priorities for reestablishing stability and progress toward a democratic transition.
Part 1. The DRC appears to be on a slow-motion path to tragedy. After 15 years in office, President Joseph Kabila will fulfill his term limits in December, but he has avoided organizing elections. Instead, he seems intent on holding onto power indefinitely.
Unregulated logging of the Congo Basin rainforests threatens to undercut the livelihoods of millions of households in the region, empower transnational organized criminal networks, and dramatically accelerate global warming.
The DRC’s ongoing political crisis is straining local peace agreements forged after the Second Congo War, threatening wider instability.
The DRC’s political crisis has galvanized and revived many of the estimated 70 armed groups currently active in the country, making the nexus between political and sectarian violence by armed militias a key feature of the DRC’s political instability.
Eighty percent of the record 163 million Africans facing acute food insecurity are in conflict-affected countries, including potentially 840,000 people confronting famine in Sudan, South Sudan, and Mali.