Vol 52 No 10 | CONGO-KINSHASAMINING Ethical smelting 13th May 2011 The Katangese Mines Minister, Juvénal Kitungwa Lugoma, was in Paris on 5 May assuring nervous electronics and automotive company representatives that cassiterite and colombo-tantalite (coltan) from Katanga was...
Vol 52 No 8 | CONGO-KINSHASA Taking the democratic out of DRC 15th April 2011 President Joseph Kabila and his supporters will restrict democratic representation only to the rich, if a bill sponsored by Kabila-stalwart Evariste Boshab goes through. The law will double...
Vol 52 No 6 | CONGO-KINSHASA Real bullets, phoney coup 18th March 2011 Suspicions abound about the government’s account of a small but deadly attack near the President’s home The government called it a terrorist attack but what actually happened is still not clear. The raid on one of President Joseph Kabila’s homes came in the early afternoon of...
Vol 52 No 6 | CONGO-KINSHASA The state of the forces 18th March 2011 Congo-Kinshasa’s armed forces comprise about 150,000, including 2,500 in the Navy, 3,000 in the Air Force and 15,000 in the Republican Guard. Military observers believe that most of the naval and...
Vol 52 No 6 | CONGO-KINSHASA Council of war, but who's the enemy? 18th March 2011 The 28 February Conseil supérieur de la défense brought together President Joseph Kabila’s top security team.
Vol 52 No 4 | CONGO-KINSHASA Split the nation 18th February 2011 Katanga’s separatists are on the march again. Fifty years ago, they threatened the unity of the new-born Congo state at Independence. On 4 February, at around 3 a.m.,...
Vol 52 No 2 | CONGO-KINSHASA Kabila moves the goalposts 21st January 2011 President Joseph Kabila has virtually ensured his re-election on 27 November by getting Parliament to eliminate the inconvenience of a second electoral round (AC Vol 52 No 1)....
Vol 52 No 1 | CONGO-KINSHASA Kabila again 7th January 2011 If, despite some legal hurdles, the elections are held, President Joseph Kabila is likely to win another five years in power Congo’s approaching elections are already entangled by lawyers. The main opposition party, Jean-Pierre Bemba’s Mouvement de libération du Congo (MLC), supported by several local non-governmental organisations, claims that...
Vol 4 (AAC) No 12 | CONGO-KINSHASASOUTH KOREA Water and copper under the bridge 5th October 2011 South Korean company Samsung C&T has become a collateral victim of the dispute between Belgian company George Forrest International and Congo-Kinshasa’s state mining company, Gécamines. GFI and Gécamines are vying for...
Vol 4 (AAC) No 11 | CONGO-KINSHASASOUTH KOREA Fire sale 15th September 2011 Ahead of national polls scheduled for 28 November, the Kinshasa government has decided to sell off state assets to a Hong Hong-based company for a fraction of their...