It patrols a landscape that feels far from the authority of Congo's government, with its dirt roads churned into slippery mud in pounding rains and residents long accustomed to feeling that ...

While Africa's second largest country may be a chaotic nation, the DR Congo bashing that has become the mantra of policy makers and academics is unfair, writes Theodore Trefon.

It spans 7,800 sq km (3,000 sq miles) and is home to an astonishingly diverse landscape ... Mr De Merode has lived in DR Congo for nearly 30 years, but he still remembers the day he first arrived.

Over the past year, the M23 has made rapid advances across the mineral-rich east of DR Congo, taking areas where coltan – the ore from which tantalum is extracted – is mined.

Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi has vowed “a vigorous and coordinated response” against a rebel alliance that has besieged swathes of the nation’s mineral-rich east ...

It spans 7,800 sq km (3,000 sq miles) and is home to an astonishingly diverse landscape ... Mr De Merode has lived in DR Congo for nearly 30 years, but he still remembers the day he first arrived.