Living With Fear: A Population-Based Survey on Attitudes About Peace, Justice and Social Reconstruction in Eastern Congo

Analyzes survey findings on views on the Congo wars, exposure to violence, origins of the wars, trials for war crimes, and priorities in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Compares survey data with those in Kishasa and Kisangani. Makes recommendations

Review article of recent literature on the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Nzongola-Ntalaja: The Congo from Leopold to Kabila, Trefon (ed): Reinventing Order in the Congo, and Clark (ed): The African Stakes of the Congo War)

By survival in conditions that are murderous, by evading forms of control and de-linking from the system, people in Congo ultimately limit the reach of the power imposed on them. They have to a great extent isolated, and to a lesser degree diminished, the leadership of Congo and the power of the invaders. The forms of economic survival dispute authority by depriving the state (or predatory nonstate actors) of revenue, whilst maximising the opportunities for survival irrespective of – and in defiance of – the coercion to which people are exposed. The violent regimes in Congo have broken the country to the extent that they were able, but the fact that they cannot break it all attests to the resistance against them: for the powerful, as for the powerless, there may be a will, but there has been no way to achieve it completely

New Ebola Outbreak in Africa Is a Major Test for the WHO

On May 8, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) notified the World Health Organization (WHO) of a confirmed outbreak of Ebola in Bikoro, on the shores of Lake Tumba in Équateur Province. Ebola in the DRC is not unexpected. The first-ever identified Ebola outbreak occurred in the DRC—then Zaire—in 1976. This is the ninth of DRC’s outbreaks, which until now have been confined mainly to rural areas. With high fatality rates, earlier outbreaks quickly burned out due to the natural firewall of remoteness. Bikoro and a nearby village, Ikoko-Impenge, are rural, but on May 16, the WHO confirmed spread to Mbandaka, home to 1.2 million people. Peter Salama, MD, MPH, head of the WHO’s Emergencies Program, called urban spread a game changer that could spill over porous borders. Lake Tumba flows to the Congo River, connecting 2 capital cities (Kinshasa, DRC, and Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo) along the waterway. The WHO warned that 9 neighboring countries, including the Central African Republic, are at high risk

Book review: Congo

"Congo." Thomas Turner. Polity. April 2013. --- The Democratic Republic of Congo has become one of the world’s bloodiest hot spots, and despite recent peace agreements and democratic elections, the country is still plagued by army and militia violence. Thomas Turner‘s insightful book discusses how the the deep–rooted causes of conflict have not been adequately addressed, and shows how current attempts to rebuild the shattered state and society of DRC are doomed to fail. Joel Krupa recommends this illuminating and important book for its passionately written chapters and rigorous analysis

[Book review] "The Dialectics of Oppression in Zaire by Michael G. Schatzberg"

Congo(Kinshasa), Internal conflicts, Politics, Human rights

Voices From the Congo Basin: Incorporating the Perspectives of Local Stakeholders for Improved REDD Design

Presents the concerns of the Congo Basin's local and indigenous communities, community NGOs, and parliament members over the design and implementation of Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation such as inequitable revenue distribution

Violent power, civilian exclusion and the M23

Violence in eastern DRC is portrayed by western countries in terms of abject failure: people or events in the Congo (or Rwanda) have caused peacebuilding and development processes to fail. But the M23 is a direct result of processes that legitimate violent power

Comparing the Performance of Faith-Based and Government Schools in the Democratic Republic of Congo

This paper provides a comparative assessment of the market share, reach to the poor, and performance of faith-based and public schools in the Democratic Republic of Congo using data from the 2004-2005 "123" survey. More than two thirds of primary school students attend faith-based government-assisted schools. Both types of school cater to a similar population that is overwhelmingly poor. Faith-based schools perform slightly better at least in some dimensions than government schools, but the differences between the two types of schools are small and not statistically significant.Primary education; faith-based; performance; poverty; Democratic Republic of Congo