Middle East & Africa | The big men still eat

Congo’s president cuts free of his would-be puppetmaster

Two years after a rigged election, Félix Tshisekedi is asserting himself

|KINSHASA

IN THE LAWLESS eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo, nomads and sedentary folk often clash. Cattle-rearing groups rub up against crop-growers over access to land. In the absence of a strong state, disputes can quickly turn violent. By contrast another type of nomadism obsesses the population in Gombe, the wealthy core of Congo’s capital, Kinshasa: that of elected officials.

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “The president pounces”

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