Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi speaks in the capital Kinshasa.
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Plenty remains to be done to improve the lives of Congolese citizens.
Residents of Bambo in North Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, flee after M23 attacks in October 2023.
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The international effort to address three decades of violence in eastern DRC has drawn in the UN, east African troops and now a southern African force.
DRC’s outgoing president Joseph Kabila (left) with his successor Felix Tshisekedi in January 2019.
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Laurent Kabila and his son Joseph were the Democratic Republic of Congo’s third and fourth presidents.
South Sudanese soldiers prepare for deployment to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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The region’s forces are seen as important in addressing the long-running conflict in the DRC – but their involvement is complicated.
Banyamulenge community members at the funeral of one of their own in eastern DRC.
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The Banyamulenge have been viewed as strangers in their own country – the violence targeting them revolves around this misconception.
Young people play football on a street in Goma, eastern DRC.
Guerchom Ndebo/AFP via Getty Images
Football provides a way for unpopular elites to build political capital – but also creates space for citizens to voice dissent.
Men hold up protest signs in front of the coffins of DRC refugees killed in August 2004 in Gatumba, Burundi.
Simon Maina/AFP via Getty Images
Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo is used to win a place in government, not to overthrow it. And it keeps working.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken setting out Washington’s new Africa strategy at the University of Pretoria.
Photo by Andrew Harnik/AP POOL/AFP via Getty Images
The strategy outlined by the US Secretary of State marks a fresh beginning in US-Africa relations.
A Congolese soldier in Goma during protests against the UN peacekeeping mission in July 2022.
Michel Lunanga/AFP via Getty Images
Protests are likely to continue over the coming months, particularly in the run-up to the Congo presidential elections next year.
Congolese in Goma protest against the UN peacekeeping mission on 26 July 2022.
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The UN mission is being held responsible for something the Congolese state should be doing.
DRC President.
Felix Tshisekedi, left, receives a ceremonial mask from Belgium’s King Philippe in June 2022.
Arsene Mpiana/AFP via Getty Images
Belgium wants to frame its relationship with Congo, Rwanda and Burundi as one looking into the future – but the past weighs heavily.
DRC President Felix Tshisekedi waves an official copy of the nation’s Constitution during his swearing in on January 24, 2019.
TONY KARUMBA/AFP via Getty Images
The admission of DRC will extend the East African Community bloc’s reach to the Atlantic Ocean.
Félix Tshisekedi, Président de la République démocratique du Congo.
EFE-EPA/-Hayoung Jeon
Le gouvernement du président Tshisekedi n’a plus l’excuse d’être entravé par l'emprise du clan de son prédécesseur Joseph Kabila.
President Félix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
EFE-EPA/-Hayoung Jeon
President Tshisekedi’s government no longer has the excuse that it’s being hampered by the dead hand of his predecessor Joseph Kabila’s cabal.
The Chairperson of the African Union, Moussa Faki Mahamat, speaks during a briefing in Addis Ababa.
Photo by Eduardo Soteras/AFP via Getty Images
Just as Algeria and South Africa could not stop Morocco’s entry into the AU, neither can they stop Israeli accreditation.
Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame meets Israel’s then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2017.
Paul Kagame/Flickr
Most countries in Africa have chosen to separate the issue of the Palestinians from economic cooperation with Israel.
Pupils wear face masks in their classroom while a teacher writes on the board at a school in Kinshasa on August 10, 2020.
Photo by Arsene Mpiana/AFP via Getty Images
Public statements against payroll fraud seem to materialise at strategic moments.
Former DRC President Joseph Kabila, left, congratulates his succesor, Felix Tshisekedi, on his inauguration in January 2019.
EFE-EPA/Kinsela Cunningham
After endless, futile negotiations with the Kabila camp, Tshisekedi appears to have finally recognised the limits of the coalition government and has lost patience.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom at an Ebola treatment centre in Itipo.
Getty images/ Junior D. Kannah
Everything starts and ends with leadership.
Peacekeeper with the UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the DRC
MONUSCO/Sylvain Liechti
The independent strategic review, now before the Security Council, recognises many of the challenges ahead. But it appears overly sanguine about what can be achieved within a three-year period.