If recent events in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo seem familiar, it is because in many ways they are. History is repeating itself – as it tends to in places where deep-seated problems are left to fester. The chaos threatening to engulf the region provides a salutary reminder that while, on many fronts, the African continent is emerging buoyant, at its volatile centre it is anything but. …

Jason Stearns, a Congo expert at the Rift Valley Institute in Kenya, sums these up neatly: “How can Rwanda and Rwanda’s clients in the eastern DRC be persuaded that they do not need to support armed groups to protect their interests? And how can the Congolese state overcome inertia and vested interests to reform its decrepit state apparatus?”