scholarly journals Who is Responsible for Instability in the Democratic Republic of Congo?

2014 ◽  
pp. 29-36
Author(s):  
G. M. Sidorova
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Republic Of The Congo

The research focuses on the problem of military-political instability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo experiencing continued armed conflict for a long time. Dozens of illegal armed groups both Congolese and foreign origin continue to destabilize situation in the eastern part of the country causing humanitarian disasters. Due to governmental weakness, economic backwardness, chronical lack of finance resources, interethnic conflicts, all-round and widely spread corruption of the authorities, the Congolese government at the moment is not able to overcome scores of problems including the problem of security. Assistanceprovided to the DRC by itspartnerssuch as, first of all, the former metropolitan country Belgium, as well as the USA, Great Britain, the Europe Union and China works only in favourof these country-donors. They are attracted by rich Congolese natural resources which the DRC remaining one of the poorest countries in the world cannot turn to advantage to the full extent because of its economic backwardness. In exchange for so-calleddevelopment programmes, expensive strategic raw material (such as coltan, wolfram, casseterit, cooper, gold, niobium, and other) is being extracted and exported from the country, in addition, often on the inequivalent basis. This is taking place for the reason that numerous mines and open-cast mines are being controlled by different illegal armed groups and not by the central government. Therefore, it turns out that in the context of a military-political crisis, for so-called partners it is more beneficial to pursue their own interests. Furthermore, western ideologists arouse "separatism-oriented" theories similar to "balkanization", in other words, a breakdown of this giant country into several independent states. The Congolese are tremulous to this issue, they try to counter such approachs and defend the territorial integrity of the DRC. However, it is not an easy task. The impediment is unsettled relations with neighbouring countries - Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi which for tens of years exploit illegally natural resources of the DRC and try to lay hold of frontier Congolese territories.

Constitutional Incorporation of the (Collective) Freedom to Govern Mineral Wealth: Comparing the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Zambia

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Alexandra Carleton
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Mineral Wealth ◽  
The People ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
The Republic

Constitutionalism may be gaining ascendancy in many countries in Africa. Yet thorough investigation of the extent to which current constitutions accord to the people their internationally recognised right to governance of their mineral wealth under Article 1(2) of the ICCPR has been lacking. Understanding the existing framework of rights which may support claims to land and natural resources is important. Constitutions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Zambia demonstrate the reality of multiple, overlapping land interests and the limitations upon a people's claim to freely govern their mineral wealth.

Implications of the 2012 U.S. Election for U.S. Policy in Africa’s Great Lakes Region

2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-191
Author(s):  
Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Great Lakes ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
The United States ◽  
Great Lakes Region ◽  
Security Sector ◽  
White House ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
The U.S

Abstract:While Africans are generally satisfied that a person of African descent was reelected to the White House following a campaign in which vicious and racist attacks were made against him, the U.S. Africa policy under President Barack Obama will continue to be guided by the strategic interests of the United States, which are not necessarily compatible with the popular aspirations for democracy, peace, and prosperity in Africa. Obama’s policy in the Great Lakes region provides an excellent illustration of this point. Since Rwanda and Uganda are Washington’s allies in the “war against terror” in Darfur and Somalia, respectively, the Obama administration has done little to stop Kigali and Kampala from destabilizing the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and looting its natural resources, either directly or through proxies. Rwanda and Uganda have even been included in an international oversight mechanism that is supposed to guide governance and security sector reforms in the DRC, but whose real objective is to facilitate Western access to the enormous natural wealth of the Congo and the Great Lakes region.

scholarly journals Operation “Artemis”: The First Autonomous EU-led Operation

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-132
Author(s):  
János Tomolya
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
European Security ◽  
Republic Of Congo ◽  
Autonomous Operation ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
Operational Constraints ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Eu

In June 2003, the EU launched Operation “Artemis”, its first military mission outside Europe and independent of NATO, to the Democratic Republic of Congo. While it ultimately received an EU badge, its origin, command and control were French. The objective of Operation “Artemis” was to contribute to the stabilisation of the security conditions in Bunia, capital of Ituri, to improve the humanitarian situation, and to ensure the protection of displaced persons in the refugee camps in Bunia. Its mandate was to provide a short-term interim force for three months until the transition to the reinforced United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC – Mission de l’Organisation des Nations Unies en République Démocratique du Congo; English: United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Although the EU can be said to have passed the first “test” of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) mechanisms for the conduct of an autonomous operation, this test was a limited one. Operational constraints were caused by inadequate strategic lift capabilities and the lack of a strategic reserve.

scholarly journals Les Conflits Interethniques en République Démocratique du Congo et Dans la Région des Grands Lacs Africains : Le Cas de L’ituri

Federalism-E ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-67
Author(s):  
Jok Oga Ukelo
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Geographical Area ◽  
Main Thrust ◽  
Black Africa ◽  
République Démocratique Du Congo ◽  
Congo Brazzaville

Black Africa has become the theatre of everlasting war. These are wars in which Africans massacre their brothers and plunder the natural resources of their continent. We can cite the cases of the Bakongo and the Bangala in the Congo Brazzaville or the Tutsis and the Hutu in Rwanda. In this article the questions surrounding the interethnic conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, via a case study of the conflict between the Hema and Lendu in the Ituri region, are explored. The main thrust of the article is that the concept of good governance is linked to a sustainable developmental strategy and that this is the only way to reach peace in this geographical area.[...]

Successes and Failures in Côte d’Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo

2019 ◽  
pp. 132-168
Author(s):  
Lisa Hultman ◽  
Jacob D. Kathman ◽  
Megan Shannon
Keyword(s):  
Cote D'ivoire ◽  
Côte D’Ivoire ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Relative Effectiveness ◽  
Cote D’Ivoire ◽  
Violence Reduction ◽  
Côte D'ivoire ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
Peacekeeping Missions

This chapter explores two conflicts and their related UN missions: Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC and MONUSCO). The chapter conducts qualitative analyses of these missions to explore the effect peacekeeping capacity and constitution on civil war violence, noting the UN’s ability to engage in mechanisms of violence reduction. The conflicts are not two cases of obvious peacekeeping success, and there are clear instances of failure in both UN efforts. However, in many situations, the missions were more effective when capacity and constitution improved, indicating that relative effectiveness increases as UN missions are sufficiently outfitted. The chapter complements the quantitative analyses by highlighting the limits of the theory and the challenges to peacekeeping missions in the midst of war.

scholarly journals Les Combattants—ideologies of exile, return and nationalism in the DRC

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norbert Mbu-Mputu ◽  
Joe Trapido
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
Republic Of Congo ◽  
Long Time

Abstract Focused on London, this article looks at the ideology and practice of Congolese nationalism in exile, and at the ideas of home, belonging and return connected with this. Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) migrants came to Western Europe escaping violence and economic and political collapse but, for a long time, the imaginative concentration of the diaspora was not on politics, but on a consumer-based version of the good life. This article traces how this changed in the 2000s with the diaspora becoming a focus for violent and racialized forms of nationalism. Tracing this evolution historically, we look at how the practices and ideologies of ‘return’ and ‘home’ have come to express this transformation of exile nationalism.

scholarly journals Navigating social spaces: armed mobilization and circular return in Eastern DR Congo

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koen Vlassenroot ◽  
Emery Mudinga ◽  
Josaphat Musamba
Keyword(s):  
Social Mobility ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Social Spaces ◽  
Dr Congo ◽  
Republic Of Congo ◽  
Refugee Studies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Pendular State

Abstract This article discusses the social mobility of combatants and introduces the notion of circular return to explain their pendular state of movement between civilian and combatant life. This phenomenon is widely observed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where Congolese youth have been going in and out of armed groups for several decades now. While the notion of circular return has its origins in migration and refugee studies, we show that it also serves as a useful lens to understand the navigation capacity between different social spaces of combatants and to describe and understand processes of incessant armed mobilization and demobilization. In conceptualizing these processes as forms of circular return, we want to move beyond the remobilization discourse, which is too often connected to an assumed failure of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration processes. We argue that this discourse tends to ignore combatants’ agency and larger processes of socialization and social rupture as part of armed mobilization.

III. Case Concerning the Arrest Warrant of April 00 (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Belgium)

2001 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 670-675
Author(s):  
Malcolm D. Evans ◽  
Chanaka Wickremasinghe
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Foreign Minister ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
National Courts ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
Sensitive Issues

An initiating Application filed by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) against Belgium on 17 October 20001 potentially raises similar issues to those raised by the Pinochet case,2 namely the scope of “universal” jurisdiction in relation to serious international crimes against individuals (in this case “grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the 1977 Protocols thereto and crimes against humanity”) and the question of immunity where State officials (in this case a Foreign Minister) are accused thereof. As such it may represent an opportunity for the Court to give an authoritative ruling on these highly controversial and sensitive issues of international law, which seem to be raised with increasingly regularity before national courts. However for now such a ruling is a matter for the future, as on 8 December 2000 the Court dismissed the DRC application for provisional measures, and thus made no comment on the substantive issues of the case. Instead it found that certain intervening factual developments had removed from the application for provisional measures the requisite elements of irreparable prejudice to the rights of the applicant and urgency, thus obviating any need for an Order to be made at this stage.

scholarly journals COVID-19 Pandemic: Knowledge and Attitudes in Public Markets in the Former Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (20) ◽  
pp. 7441
Author(s):  
Trésor Carsi Kuhangana ◽  
Caleb Kamanda Mbayo ◽  
Joseph Pyana Kitenge ◽  
Arlène Kazadi Ngoy ◽  
Taty Muta Musambo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Low Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Public Markets ◽  
Knowledge And Attitudes ◽  
Preventive Practices ◽  
Republic Of The Congo

Background. Public markets were exempted from the restrictive regulations instituted to limit the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In the early stage of the pandemic, we assessed people’s knowledge, attitudes, and behavior on public markets towards COVID-19. Methods. We conducted a cross-sectional study from 16 to 29 April 2020 among sellers and customers frequenting the food sections of ten public markets in three large cities (Kolwezi, Likasi, and Lubumbashi) and one small town (Lwambo) of the former Katanga province. We administered a questionnaire on knowledge (about clinical characteristics, transmission and prevention) and on attitudes in relation to COVID-19. We also observed prevailing practices (hand-washing and mask-wearing). Results: Of the 347 included participants (83% women, 83% sellers), most had low socioeconomic status and a low level of education. Only 30% of participants had correct knowledge of COVID-19. The majority of the respondents (88%) showed no confidence in the government’s ability to manage the upcoming pandemic crisis. Nearly all respondents (98%) were concerned about the associated increase in food insecurity. Preventive practices were rarely in place. Conclusion: For an effective implementation of measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Africa, appropriate health education programs to improve knowledge and attitudes are warranted among the population frequenting public markets.

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