The Democratic Republic Of The Congo Case Study

he Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has an image problem. The DCR has one of the highest incidences of poverty in the world due to many complex reasons, however the underlying factor always being political struggles. At a rate of 71.34, its incidence of poverty is “extremely high”, even in comparison with other central African countries which has lead to DCR being the worlds poorest country. This essay will explore the underlying reasons and show that the political struggles of The Democratic Republic of Congo in the 19th century until now have caused great social strain for the community. Its underlying thesis is that the Congolese people have shown a significant interest in the politics of their country which as a result has caused social problems such as ethnical rivalries, sexual exploitation and a substantial amount of death.

The endeavour for independence started somewhat late in the Congo. In January 1959, there was a great riot in Leopoldville which is today known as Kinshasa for which the leaders of the ABAKO, the ethnically-based political party of the Bakongo people, were blamed and jailed. This caused a complete boycott of government services in the Lower Congo district and a successful mobilization of the Bakongo. ABAKO were involved in an alliance with other political parties that were devoted to a command for prompt independence and a federal state structure. Several leaders were sent afar to investigate getting aid for the possible violent struggle and to explore the initiation of a interim government in exile.

In January 1960, Belgium, fearing an Algeria-like violent strain, called a Belgo-Congolese conference which surprisingly they agreed to full independence as of June 30, 1960. Belgium surrendered ...

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...olese, both he and his party lost legitimacy in the later years of his rule, but in the early years, the government was rather popular. These were years of wealth, unity, peace, and nationalistic pride after years of war.
Before the Rwanda massacre in 1994, the East had seen more violence and inter-ethnic disputes than the rest of the Congo. Though, the deracination of around one million conquered Hutu from Rwanda into the DRC distressed the political and ethnic stability of power in the Kivus, as previous Rwandan army units used their refugee camps as bases to attack Rwanda. Rwanda and Uganda attacked the Congo in 1996, in order to remove the uprising camps formed in the Congo by eviction from all three of these states. As a smokescreen for their take over, Uganda and Rwanda helped establish a Congolese rebellious motion, the ADFL, soon to be led by Laurent Kabila.