Situation Report: Update on the DRC: Is the Transition in Trouble? Stephanie Wolters

One year after the inauguration of a transition government, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is facing its most serious crisis since war broke out between rebel factions and the government of the late President Laurent Kabila in August 1998. An ethnically-based armed faction led by General Laurent Nkunda, a former officer in the Rwandan-backed Rally for Congolese Democracy-Goma (RCD-G), is threatening to reignite full-scale war in the eastern part of the country, and the Congolese government has responded by sending tens of thousands of troops to the region. These armed groups now face one another across the frontline in North Kivu and Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province and a city which General Nkunda briefly seized militarily in late-May. In Kinshasa, dialogue between the leaders of the various armed factions which now make up the new government, has all but come to a standstill, and latent mistrust has openly resurfaced. In these circumstances, it is difficult to imagine that the crisis will be managed politically, and there are strong indications that a flare-up, if not a prolonged bout of fighting, will erupt in the days and weeks to come.