As Joseph Kabila plays video games in Kinshasa surrounded by the only functioning military entity in the Congo, the Presidential Guard, the people grow weary of his pretexts for remaining in power. Having taken over following the liquidation of his father Laurent-Désiré in 2001, the president completed his second term in 2016. The hollow state he has built teeters over a vast country wrought with ethnic division and foreign interference. The last thing it now needs is a return to the armed conflict that since 1998 has left over 5 million people dead.
Political scientists and African anthropologists will note that violence is no stranger to Congolese society, and that since independence in 1960, armed conflict has persisted in the country. Others argue that it has existed as far back as King Leopold of Belgium’s violent exploitation of the Congo in the 19th century.