Democratic Republic of the Congo

**The Democratic Republic of the Congo**, also called the DR Congo, **DRC**, Congo-Kinshasa or Zaire, is a country located in Central Africa. It borders the Central African Republic, the East African Federation, Zambia and Angola. It is the second largest country in Africa, after the enormous North African Caliphate. By 2030, the **DRC** was the largest francophone country in the world and had one of the world's fastest growing populations.

## History

### Post-Independence

In May 1960, a growing nationalist movement, the Mouvement National Congolais or MNC Party, led by Patrice Lumumba, won the parliamentary elections. Patrice Lumumba thus became the first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Belgian Congo achieved independence on 30 June 1960 under the name "République du Congo" ("Republic of Congo" or "Republic of the Congo" in English). Shortly after independence, the provinces of Katanga (led by Moise Tshombe) and South Kasai engaged in secessionist struggles against the new leadership. Most of the 100,000 Europeans who had remained behind after independence fled the country, opening the way for Congolese to replace the European military and administrative elite. As the neighboring French colony of Middle Congo (Moyen Congo) also chose the name "Republic of Congo" upon achieving its independence, the two countries were more commonly known as "Congo-Léopoldville" and "Congo-Brazzaville", after their capital cities.
Lumumba had previously appointed Joseph Mobutu chief of staff of the new Congo army, Armée Nationale Congolaise (ANC). Taking advantage of the leadership crisis between Kasavubu and Lumumba, Mobutu garnered enough support within the army to create mutiny. With financial support from the United States and Belgium, Mobutu paid his soldiers privately. The aversion of Western powers to communism and leftist ideology influenced their decision to finance Mobutu's quest to maintain "order" in the new state by neutralizing Kasavubu and Lumumba in a coup by proxy.

### Zaire and Conflicts

The new president had the support of the United States because of his staunch opposition to Communism, believing that his administration would serve as an effective counter to communist movements in Africa. Corruption became so prevalent the term "le mal Zairois" or "Zaïrean Sickness", meaning gross corruption, theft and mismanagement, was coined, reportedly by Mobutu himself. International aid, most often in the form of loans, enriched Mobutu while he allowed national infrastructure such as roads to deteriorate to as little as one-quarter of what had existed in 1960. Zaïre became a "kleptocracy" as Mobutu and his associates embezzled government funds.

During the 1970s and 1980s, he was invited to visit the United States on several occasions, meeting with U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union U.S. relations with Mobutu cooled, as he was no longer deemed necessary as a Cold War ally. Mobutu continued in power until armed forces forced him to flee Zaire, in 1997.

By 1996, following the Rwandan Civil War and genocide and the ascension of a Tutsi-led government in Rwanda, Rwandan Hutu militia forces, the Interahamwe, fled to eastern Zaïre and used refugee camps as a base for incursion against Rwanda. A coalition of Rwandan and Ugandan armies invaded Zaïre to overthrow the government of Mobutu, and ultimately to control the mineral resources of Zaïre, launching the First Congo War. The coalition allied with some opposition figures, led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila, becoming the Alliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Congo-Zaïre (AFDL). In 1997 Mobutu fled and Kabila marched into Kinshasa, naming himself president and reverting the name of the country to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Kabila later requested that foreign military forces return to their own countries—he had concerns that the Rwandan officers running his army were plotting a coup in order to give the presidency to a Tutsi who would report directly to the Rwandan president, Paul Kagame. Kabila was assassinated in 2001. His son, Joseph Kabila, succeeded him and called for multilateral peace-talks. UN peacekeepers MONUSCO, arrived in April 2001. Talks led to the signing of a peace accord in which Kabila would share power with former rebels. By June 2003 all foreign armies except those of Rwanda had pulled out of Congo.

## Politics and Government

The President of the **DRC** is supposedly democratically elected for a four-year term and no limit exists on how many times that term can be renewed. The executive branch of government is headed by President and four Vice-Presidents. The legislature is comprised of a bicameral parliament.

### Foreign Relations

The **DRC** has close economic relations with the United States, China, the East African Federation, India and the UIR. The DRC, along with the EAF, South Africa and Nigeria founded the African Treaty Cooperation, intended to be Africa’s answer to NATO, to defend the continent from the expansion of the NAC.

## Economy

The **DRC** is one of the most mineral rich countries in the world having untapped mineral resources estimated to have a value of $24 trillion US dollars in 2015 prices. These minerals include cobalt, diamonds, gold, copper and oil. China took a particular interest in mining and infrastructure projects in the **DRC** during the early to mid 21st century to extract those resources and transport them to African ports for shipment to Chinese factories.

The **DRC** also has an abundant source of hydropower in the Congo River. The **DRC** could potentially build the largest hydroelectric dam in the world, the proposed Grand Inga Dam, supplying its population with clean electricity. As of 2030, work had on this hypothetical project had not begun but it had the potential to be one of the biggest infrastructure projects of the 21st century.