The Democratic Republic of the Congo: An Overview

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is an artificial entity. Though mountains, the White Nile, and a series of lakes in the east form a sort of natural boundary, the rest of the Congolese territory is ungrounded in any tribal or geographic reality. The DRC essentially exists as a series of disconnected islands that Kinshasa does not have the military or political clout to control. Underlying tensions arising from this reality mean that periods of quiet in the DRC will be only temporary before unrest flares up once more.