Eastern Congo is as wretched as ever

Intense negotiations in the past six months to end decades of chaos and bloodshed in eastern Congo collapsed in mid-December, when at the last minute Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, refused to endorse a new deal. He had been expected to shake hands on it with Congo’s president, Félix Tshisekedi, in Luanda, capital of Angola, whose president, João Lourenço, has been entrusted by the African Union (AU) with the task of mediation. The upshot is that a Rwandan-supported rebel group known as M23, as well as an array of lesser guerrilla outfits, will continue to immiserate eastern Congo’s people. At least a million of them in the North Kivu district have fled since a resurgence of fighting in recent years (see map).