On March 10, 2021 the U.S. government designated the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) as a terrorist organization. The group had been under U.S. sanctions since 2014 for their human rights abuses, and six of their leaders had been under a travel ban and assets freeze since 2019. These new

By Joshua Z. Walker, director of programs, Congo Research Group Before Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi assumed power, in January 2019, expectations for what, concretely, he could achieve while in office—in light of the power imbalance with Joseph Kabila’s Front commun pour le Congo (FCC)—were low. As if to accentuate this

Politics in Kinshasa is in turmoil––the coalition between President Tshisekedi and Joseph Kabila has crumbled, leading to a radical reconfiguration of power in the country. In this season of political intrigue, however, little has been done to attend to the needs of Congolese people. Substantive discussions of how to transform

La réforme électorale demeure un débat permanent en République démocratique du Congo. Depuis 2006, cycle électoral après cycle électoral, les différents scrutins organisés n’ont pas permis de mettre fin à la crise récurrente de légitimité. Ce qui était pourtant l’engagement des acteurs politiques et sociaux à Sun City au début

The international humanitarian response to the tenth Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) had a deep impact on  social, political, and economic life in the east of the country. Today, the Congo Research Group (CRG) is releasing the first of a series of three reports on

By Pascal K. Kambale In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the coronavirus crisis also has a political side. As in other countries, it will likely leave a deep imprint on fragile democratic processes and significantly distort the balance of forces between the country’s political institutions. President Felix Tshisekedi

Formerly a small local militia, Guidon Shimiray’s Nduma Defence of Congo-Rénové (NDC-R) is today one of the most powerful armed groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. But what does it mean for the dynamics of violence in this part of the country, where regional states’ interests are

On May 6, 2020, The Lancet Infectious Diseases is publishing a projection of the grave toll that the COVID-19 pandemic could exact in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The study, « COVID-19 on the African continent », of which Congo Research Group (CRG) director Jason Stearns is a co-author

Jamais dans l’histoire politique congolaise de ces deux dernières décennies, un acteur si majeur de la scène politique ne s’était retrouvé derrière les barreaux. Directeur de cabinet et allié du président de la République, Vital Kamerhe passe pourtant ses nuits dans une cellule de la prison de Makala, à Kinshasa,

What if South Africa withdrew from Inga III, the hydroelectric project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that can potentially electrify a large part of the continent and drive regional development? In October 2013, the South African government committed to purchasing 2.5 of the 11 gigawatts that Inga III