Tricky limbo in eastern Congo

Tough times for the MONUSCO Force Intervention Brigade. Put up by the UN Security council’s latest mandate almost half a year ago, this offensive arm of the largest peacekeeping mission worldwide is tasked to “neutralise” armed groups in eastern Congo. A daunting job, not least because the latter are at an estimated number of 50 … Continue reading

North Kivu braces for potential UN-armed group clashes

(appeared first on 2 August 2013 at IRIN)   A UN ultimatum for armed groups around Goma, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC’s) North Kivu Province, to disarm, expired on 1 August and a security zone has been set up around the city. Goma is calm, but civilians, aid agencies and NGOs wait nervously … Continue reading

A closer look at the Raia Mutomboki

With recent news that the Raia Mutomboki’s “original” chapter around Jean Musumbu is willing to integrate into national army FARDC, and rumours about subsequent tensions between “his” Raia Mutomboki and other subgroups more northwards in Shabunda territory of South Kivu province, it might be an opportunity to republish an earlier piece on the topic:   … Continue reading

The drama of post-colonial governance in contemporary African politics

Today’s global discourses feature a large variety of thoughts relating to current governance in many places in the world. In an age of globalisation and concurrent modes of governance, statehood, administration, and society organisation have emerged. The African continent, despite its massive variety of political culture and governance modes, prominently shows up as a place … Continue reading

Writing experiment: Trying an everyone’s read of Congo…

… in less than 1500 words, reducing complexity as much as possible without skewing facts. All that, to favour readability with the aim of making the below essay comprehensible for whichever reader with or without preexisting Congo knowledge. Disclaimer: My last articles have sparked an interesting amount of critique, most of which was favourable from … Continue reading