Country profilesDemocratic Republic of the Congo

Humanitarian profile

Democratic Republic of Congo's five-year war officially ended in 2003, but the country is still mired in one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. It should be rich thanks to its plentiful supply of gold, diamonds and minerals. Yet millions of its people suffer from a lethal combination of disease and hunger caused by ongoing conflict and displacement. Tens of thousands of women and girls have been raped, mostly in the eastern part of the country. The country is a major recipient of humanitarian aid from the world's rich donor nations, which totalled $3.1 billion between 1999 and 2008.

Country snapshot

Spanning a territory the size of western Europe, Democratic Republic of Congo, is home to vast reserves of minerals that could make it the most prosperous country on the continent. However, decades of corruption, conflict and despotism have devastated the former Belgian colony, shattering its infrastructure and leaving millions of people in poverty.

Congo's first democratic elections in more than 40 years - held in 2006 - were meant to draw a line under years of war and chaos. But the army, along with troops from the United Nations' largest peacekeeping force, is still fighting a string of conflicts across eastern Congo where hundreds are dying from violence and disease.

Government

Congolese voters directly elect a president. The cabinet is appointed by the ruling party in the parliament. The parliament also elects a prime minister. The legislature consists of a Senate, which is elected by provincial assemblies, and a National Assembly. However, executive power is vested in the president.

Voters elected Joseph Kabila as president of Africa's third largest country in 2006. Kabila had led Congo since 2001 when his father Laurent was assassinated. After being named president, Kabila made moves to end a war that started in 1998, drawing in five foreign armies. Under a subsequent peace deal signed by rebel leaders in 2002 establishing a transitional government, Kabila kept his position as president. The transitional government had the task of leading the country to free elections which took place in 2006.

A former guerrilla fighter, Kabila campaigned on having fulfilled his promise to end the 1998-2003 war, winning 58.05 percent of the vote in a run-off. The next elections are due in 2011. Kabila has enjoyed the clear support of western governments such as the United States and France, regional allies South Africa and Angola and businessmen and mining magnates who have signed multi-million dollar deals under his rule.

Economy

Rich in natural resources, Congo is home to one third of the world's cobalt reserves, as well as large deposits of copper, gold and diamonds among other minerals and precious metals. Mining revenues are a mainstay of Congo's public finances. But the sector was hit hard by the global economic crisis which caused demand for mineral exports, Congo's primary foreign exchange earner, to dry up.

Despite a wealth of natural resources, Congo has one of the lowest per capita incomes in the world with much economic activity still occurring in the informal sector - the result of years of mismanagement, corruption and conflict. With little manufacturing or agricultural capacity, Congo depends heavily on imported goods.

In 2001, the government announced economic reforms designed to free up the currency, lift foreign exchange restrictions and end a monopoly on diamond export sales. But progress in reversing decades of decline is slow. New investors face problems with taxes, immigration services and the law itself. In a survey measuring the overall policy attractiveness of 71 mining countries and regions, Congo ranked near the bottom. (Fraser Institute)

Congo has however made moves to rehabilitate itself financially, in particular with a $6 billion agreement with China that, after it was modified at the behest of international lenders, could pave for the way for debt relief. The Chinese deal is a cornerstone of President Joseph Kabila's post-war economic policy to help rebuild the cash-strapped central African nation.

History

In 1885, Belgium's King Leopold II takes the country as his personal fiefdom, acquiring rights to a territory 75 times the size of Belgium and naming it Congo Free State. Under his rule, colonial officials forcibly recruited the local population to work in the rubber industry. Villages were raided, and women and children held hostage as a way of forcing their men to bring back ever greater supplies of rubber from the forest. Those who did not meet their quota had their hands chopped off.

In 1908, the Belgian parliament took over Congo Free State, renaming it Belgian Congo.

Democratic Republic of Congo eventually won independence from Belgium in 1960 amid a surge of nationalist fervour that swept across the continent. But within months of independence, the country descended into bloodshed and rebellion. The army mutinied, the governor of mineral-rich Katanga province attempted secession, a U.N. peacekeeping force was summoned to restore order, elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba was assassinated and Colonel Joseph Desire Mobutu took over the government, ceding it again to President Joseph Kasavubu.

Unrest plagued the government until 1965, when Mobutu - by then a lieutenant general and commander-in-chief of the national army - again seized control of the country, renaming it the Republic of Zaire and himself Mobutu Sese Seko.

During his 32 years in power, Mobutu was said to have sipped pink champagne daily, hired Concorde to fly his family to New York for shopping trips and squirrelled away billions of dollars in Swiss bank accounts. His regime, which became synonymous with institutionalised theft, was toppled in 1997 by a rebellion backed by Rwanda and Uganda and fronted by Laurent Desire Kabila. Mobutu fled to Morocco where he died shortly after.

Kabila renamed the country Democratic Republic of Congo. He kicked out the Rwandan troops who helped him during his bush war, prompting Tutsi-led rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda to take up arms against him in August 1998. Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola sent troops to help Kabila. The war killed around 5.4 million people, mainly through conflict-related hunger and disease.

Kabila was shot dead in 2001 by one of his bodyguards.

His son Joseph Kabila was quickly named the head of state, becoming the world's youngest president.

Softly spoken and publicity shy, Joseph Kabila was credited with negotiating Rwanda's withdrawal from the east, ending the 1998-2003 war. He was elected president for a five-year term in 2006 when voters took part in Congo's second ever multi-party elections.

Legal snapshot

The Congolese legal system is primarily based on Belgian law. The judiciary is divided into three areas with the jurisdiction over constitutional matters residing at the Constitutional Court, judicial matters at the Appeals Court (or Cour de Cassation) and administrative matters at the Council of State. They are supported by lower civilian and military courts and tribunals.

Customary or tribal law comes into play particularly in rural areas - regulating issues such as marriage and divorce as well as property rights including inheritance and land tenure.

Corruption, weak institutional capacity and failure to uphold the independence of the judiciary undermine Congo's legal system. Human rights groups have long complained of a culture of impunity in the country, saying it allows for unlawful killings, disappearances, torture, rape, and arbitrary arrest and detention by security groups to thrive.

Graft is perceived as rampant in the country. Transparency International says high levels of corruption in DRC's mining sector have consistently contributed to economic stagnation, inequality and conflict.