Congolese President Joseph Kabila was due to step down last year after serving two terms. But he failed to organise elections leading to deadly protests. Is Congo’s future now in grave danger?
Patrice Lumumba had a vision for the DRC. He believed that a lasting peace could be achieved through good will, not rifles and bayonets. The great man’s vision now lies in tatters.
A woman votes in Zambia. Beyond multi-party systems and regular elections, many countries resemble very little of true democracies.
GovernmentZA/Flickr
Democracy is in a parlous state in many countries in southern Africa. Autocrats hold onto power, while electorates have little to choose from at the polls.
Lake Kivu borders three African countries. With a surface area of 2060 km² it is almost the size of Mauritius.
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Political agreements between major political actors aren’t enough to ensure stability in the DRC. Structural changes are needed as is a new approach towards governance.
DRC President Joseph Kabila in Kinshasa.
Kenny Katombe/Reuters
The Democratic Republic of Congo desperately needs a peaceful election but with the UN threatening to scale back its DRC mission, the likelihood of a successful poll is being threatened
As the goat plague is a trans-boundary disease, there’s concern that it will spill over into neighbouring countries such as Rwanda and Burundi.
A prospector prepares to pan for gold in South Kivu in 2014. Many informal miners faced tough choices as US regulations turned life upside down.
Reuters/Kenny Katombe
The US wants to repeal controls imposed seven years ago on the trade of some Congolese minerals. The president’s reasons might be all wrong. But the law was badly put together in the first place.
A patrol post in Virunga.
Using the army to fight illegal resource exploitation aggravates conflict.
Author supplied
The Virunga National Park is home to many people living off the land. Clashes between the army and those illegally extracting resources is causing huge problems for conservation.
Mass protests in Burkina Faso forced Blaise Compaoré to step down after 27 years in power.
Reuters/Joe Penney
Acts of rape and sexual slavery committed by members of a Congolese armed group against other members are war crimes within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.
Site of a proposed palm oil plantation in Kalimantan, Indonesia.
Dr Ward Berenschot
Zimbabwe are looking to resolve a debt to China by selling animals to them. But one of the concerns is that the elephants sold will eventually be farmed and their ivory harvested.
Burundian refugees wait at the shores of Lake Tanganyika in Kagunga village in Kigoma region, western Tanzania.
Reuters/Stringer
Small-scale renewable energy projects have tremendous potential to power rural areas in the DRC. Rural areas in the country have very little access to electricity.
Remarkable things happen when academics from the global South work together.
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It’s important to create spaces where the global South’s problems can be presented, debated and solutions developed - including some that can be applied in similar economies.
Part-time lecturer at the Global Health & Social Medicine, Harvard University, and Lecturer at the School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Liberia