Katanga: Congo’s Perpetual Trouble Spot

Abstract:

Katanga, a former province in the Democratic Republic of Congo, or DRC, experienced several periods of violent social and political upheaval since the colonial era. Multiple cleavages, Katanga’s mineral wealth, local obsessions with autochthony and autonomy ambitions, were all sources of tension. In July 2015, the province was split up into four smaller, socioeconomically unequal entities. This policy brief discusses the lates political developments in former Katanga as of October 2016 in the context of an overhasty initiation of the decentralisation process and the general political crisis caused by President Kabila’s reluctance to give up power.