Vol 60 No 19 | CONGO-KINSHASA Of puppets and godfathers 27th September 2019 Accusations of corruption against the President’s appointees are weakening him in his fight with Kabila 'I am not a puppet', President Félix Tshisekedi keeps insisting, most recently to the Belgian government and the Congolese diaspora in Brussels during a recent state visit to the ...
Vol 60 No 18 | CONGO-KINSHASAZAMBIA The China price 13th September 2019 Facing corruption probes and resource nationalism, Western mining companies are quitting the Copperbelt Producing 70% of the world's cobalt, an essential component of electric car batteries and mobile phones, Africa's Copperbelt is in the midst of a sweeping transformation. Seeking t... READ FOR FREE
Vol 60 No 15 | CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE Fund falls for Sassou 26th July 2019 The IMF sees the country as a test case for African nations which borrowed heavily from China. It is being lenient President Denis Sassou-Nguesso appears, again, to have secured victory over the International Monetary Fund, obtaining an urgently needed bail-out in exchange for promises that he ...
Vol 60 No 15 | CONGO-KINSHASA Kasaï peace at risk 26th July 2019 An ambitious provincial governor’s new appointments and initiatives threaten to anger armed militants now on a ceasefire Violence engulfed Kasaï Central Province between 2016 and 2018, when the anti-government Kamuina Nsapu militia – aggrieved about the murder of their traditional leader by the...
Vol 60 No 14 | CONGO-KINSHASA Terminated 12th July 2019 After a three-year trial in which more than 2,000 victims were represented, three International Criminal Court (ICC) judges have found Jean Bosco Ntaganda, 45, also known as 'The T...
Vol 60 No 13 | CONGO-KINSHASA Mbororo conundrum 28th June 2019 Fulani herders – already involved in clashes in the Sahel – are being targeted by unscrupulous politicians and the dangers levels are rising In Congo-Kinshasa's Haut Uele province, which borders South Sudan and Central African Republic, inflammatory rhetoric from the authorities and civil society against the nomadic, ca...
Vol 60 No 12 | CONGO-KINSHASA Tshisekedi tries his luck 14th June 2019 A test of the President’s ability to challenge Kabila’s influence is coming up over how the state mining company is run President Félix Tshisekedi's decision to reappoint Albert Yuma Mulimbi – one of ex-President Joseph Kabila's closest allies – as head of Congo-Kinshasa's largest state-owned minin...
Vol 60 No 12 | CONGO-KINSHASA Missing you already 14th June 2019 The grand old man of Congolese politics gets a state send-off, and the funeral offers a chance for political manoeuvres Two years and four months after the old man passed away, the body of veteran Congolese politician Étienne Tshisekedi finally returned from Brussels to Congo-Kinshasa on 30 May. Tho...
Vol 60 No 12 | RWANDACONGO-KINSHASA Enemies without, and within 14th June 2019 UN peacekeepers and other security sources confirm that units from at least two battalions of the Rwanda Defence Force have taken positions inside Congo-Kinshasa, to hunt down grou...
Vol 60 No 11 | CONGO-KINSHASA A shake-up takes shape 31st May 2019 In spite of Kabila’s enduring power, politics is on the move, militias are mobilising, and fresh alliances are forming The return to Congo-Kinshasa after three years in exile of Moïse Katumbi, the former Governor of Katanga, is set to shake up national politics even as ex-President Joseph Kabila re...
