Recently when criminal elements among the Karimojong raided the districts in the Acholi, Lango, Teso and Bugisu regions and rustled cattle, raped women, killed, and burnt homes, the government's response again was to arm all the neighbouring districts. Uganda easily has the most advanced militianisation programme in the Great Lakes region. In the DR Congo, for example, nearly all the foreign forces deployed there manifest this tendency to varying degrees. Some of the soldiers from the foreign armies in the DRC are veterans who were recalled from demobilisation, and other irregulars. These forces are assigned the task of protecting areas with lucrative mining possibilities, after the formal army has done the fighting and captured these places.
Congo represents one of the best examples in Africa of the meltdown of the post-colonial state.
Mobutu ruled this vast country by personal contact for over 30 years. In each major region of the country he appointed personal representatives who owed their position solely to him. Perhaps only to a lesser extent than our own President Yoweri Museveni, Mobutu deliberately prevented any individual or institution from developing a base beyond his control. Much like many fear will happen with Uganda after Museveni, Mobutu in the end bequeathed his country a total power vacuum. To this day, DR Congo has almost no passable roads.