In August 2024, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame started a five-year term that will extend his presidential rule to 29 years.
Luke Dray/Getty Images
Kagame will need to address regional security threats, which include deteriorating relationships with neighbouring Burundi and DRC.
Soldiers from the DRC-Uganda joint military operation against the rebel Allied Democratic Forces in 2021.
Alain Uaykani/Xinhua via Getty Images
Uganda’s interest in natural resources during the second Congo war has had a lasting impact on how it’s perceived in the DRC.
Jocelyn Armel, aka the Bachelor, is one of the most talked-about ‘Sapeurs’ in the media. He’s known for his outings, interviews and above all for his promotion of the ‘Sapeurs’ and Africa.
The members of the Society for Ambience and Elegance (Sape) are impossible to overlook. Born in Central Africa at the beginning of the 20th century, the style is now found from Paris to Dubai.
People protest against the conflict in eastern DRC during an African Union assembly in Addis Ababa on 17 February 2024.
Amanuel Sileshi /AFP via Getty Images
Protests in Kinshasa are an indictment of the lack of attention to the Congolese crisis.
Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, is home to over 17 million people.
Zute Lightfoot / Alamy Stock Photo
Charity advertising often reinforces historical stereotypes of underdevelopment that equate Africa with poverty.
DRC’s outgoing president Joseph Kabila (left) with his successor Felix Tshisekedi in January 2019.
Tony Karumba/AFP via Getty Images
Laurent Kabila and his son Joseph were the Democratic Republic of Congo’s third and fourth presidents.
A soldier guards a camp in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in January 2023.
Guerchom Ndebo/AFP via Getty Images
Central to the DRC’s politics is a broken relationship between the seat of government in Kinshasa and underrepresented groups in the eastern region.
Jan Sochor/Getty Images
Timber parks, where the paperwork for loads of timber is inspected, can help stem the financial losses from illegal exports.
South Sudanese soldiers prepare for deployment to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Samir Bol/AFP via Getty Images
The region’s forces are seen as important in addressing the long-running conflict in the DRC – but their involvement is complicated.
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.
Lagos, Nigeria is one of the cities growing at a rapid rate.
Michael Kraus/EyeEm/Shutterstock
All too often, urban reforms are led by technical and infrastructural change, rather than by engaging people.
Nelson Mandela, first president of a democratic South Africa, wanted human rights to guide the country’s foreign policy.
Hamish Blair/Getty Images
South Africa frequently invokes its celebrated constitution that is based on human rights, but has often failed to live up to its ideals.
Former DRC President Joseph Kabila congratulates President Felix Tshisekedi at his inauguration.
EPA-EFE/Hugh Kinsella Cunningham
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s new leader Felix Tshisekedi is being undermined by the outgoing regime of Joseph Kabila.
Lexxus Legal is a hip-hop artist and at the forefront of the activist movement in the DRC.
Facebook
The intertwining of the market, state and society has continued to see itself expressed through music in the DRC.
Supporters of the DRC’s opposition candidate, Felix Tshisekedi.
EPA-EFE/Stefan Kleinnowitz
The DRC could be the exception after a year in which opposition parties fared badly across East and Central Africa.
A vendor at the Sigida Market, in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
ReutersS/Robert Carrubba
Graft is common in the way that markets in Kinshasa are run.
Ivorians attend a memorial service for the late Congolese singer Papa Wemba in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, 27 April 2016.
EPA/Legnan Koula
Congolese singer Papa Wemba might have been one of Africa’s best loved musicians - but his politics wasn’t popular with all his compatriots.