A US marine sent to the Congo by the Pentagon to be part of a team of military instructors selected to train a battalion of Congolese Special Forces boarded a UN plane in Goma. He was travelling to the training center in the city of Kisangani, in the DR Congo. However, the aircraft crashes in the middle of the jungle. The crew perishes in the accident. The Marine and other passengers survive, only to be attacked and captured by merciless Simba militiamen. However, the Marine, a captain who had fought in Iraq and Somalia, succeeds in subduing their captors, helped by a CIA agent who was a former Marine, a Congolese army lieutenant, and a child-soldier. They escape through the Congolese jungle until they reach the city of Beni. The previous night, the city had been devastated by ferocious rebels who abducted an American missionary. The Marines team up with valiant Congolese soldiers, pursue the rebels, and uncover "blood gold" transactions linked to money-laundering by Islamist terrorists' partners based in Kampala and Nairobi. The Marines and the Congolese soldiers engage in a breathtaking battle against Ugandan Special forces in the town of Mutwanga in the Beni terrtory. They overwhelm their foes and expose the involvement of some rogue Congolese and Ugandan top army officers in these "blood gold" deadly dealings. The Congolese government has to make a bold decision...

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has experienced one of the most complex, meandering, and uncertain democratisation processes in Africa. In 2016 the third cycle of elections was not organised. The Presidential Majority (M.P) was accused of concocting an amendment of the constitution aimed at granting a third term to the incumbent President Joseph Kabila. Furthermore, the introduction of a Voting Machine by the electoral commission fuelled violent protests and a political impasse. The DRC tittered on the brink of collapse into another civil war in 2016. Yet, against all odds, the Congolese electoral commission organised peaceful elections in December 2018. Stunningly, the presidential election was won by the opposition. A peaceful transfer of power at the helm of the state occurred for the first time in the country after 58 years of independence. The DRC is now regarded as a model of political alternation in power in Central Africa. The essay stems from the observation that predominant theorisations of Congolese politics fail to grasp the fecundity of the Congolese democratisation. Most scholars and analysts tend to focus on the deficits and flaws inherent in Congolese politics. Hence, they are often oblivious to foundational strides accomplished in this process as it unfolded in the DRC. This essay undertakes a modelled exploration of the democratisation process that unfolded in the DRC from the era of President Joseph Mobutu (1990–1997) to the dispensation of President Joseph Kabila (2001–2018). The effort utilises a paradigmatic framework to unravel the intricacies of a phenomenon occurring in a country which, at first glance, is often assumed to escape any ideal type. To this effect, the essay utilises Dr. Samuel Huntington’s Model of the Third Wave of Democratisation. It elucidates the causes, patterns, problems, and prospects of furthering this process in the DRC. The book proposes a dialectical approach propounding the possibility of the consolidation of democratisation in the DRC.

This volume offers a comprehensive history and analysis of the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the tumultuous period of 1997 - 2001. The author examines the most recent events in this turbulent region, offering a contemporary account that is both extensive and detailed.

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

The author identifies the roots of organized crime in Ba'athist Iraq and reports on major criminal activities including the theft, diversion, and smuggling of oil, the kidnapping of both Iraqis and foreigners, extortion, car theft, and the theft and smuggling of antiquities. The author also reports on how al-Qaeda in Iraq, Jaish-al-Mahdi, and the Sunni tribes used criminal activities to fund their campaigns of political violence.