Sub-Saharan Africa

by Antonio Garcia

Joseph Kabila, like Mobutu Sese Seko before him, has used his position as Democratic Republic of Congo president to amass wealth for himself and his family. Unfortunately democracy hasn’t changed the equation that political power has been the road to self-enrichment. As new political elites have come to the fore, the race to fill their personal coffers has been accompanied by little redistribution of wealth by the government, scant investment in infrastructure, job creation or social services.

For many generations, people of different religions can live side by side in peace. Then those same religions become the basis for violent conflict, neighbor turning on neighbor. Why? Can it be prevented? Can the conflict be peacefully resolved? How?

Violent extremism is caused by an avowed identity derived from strong religious beliefs and a strong in-group membership that stigmatizes and dehumanizes other groups and beliefs.

In mid-March, armed men walked Michael J. Sharp and Zaida Catalán through the savanna in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Kasai region, sat them down and shot them. A low-resolution video captured the executions. Mr. Sharp, an American, and Ms. Catalán, a Swede, were United Nations sanctions monitors, charged with finding out who was responsible for human rights abuses and supporting armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Alexandra Novosseloff et Jean-Marc de la Sablière parlent avec Marie-France Chatin sur la décision des EEUU de se retirer de l’Accord de Paris sur le climat.  La décision, un message particulièrement difficile pour l’Afrique, continent parmi les plus impactés par le réchauffement climatique. Les menaces américaines sur le budget de l’ONU, et principalement les opérations de maintien de la paix sont autant d’interrogations supplémentaires pour le continent.