AFRICA/D. R. CONGO - President Kabila takes office. What challenges does he face?

Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides)- Joseph Kabila Democratic Congo’s first democratically elected president sworn in today.
The new head of state will have to tackle difficult problems. He will have to consolidate peace in a country still lacerated and divided by conflicts and foreign invasions between 1996 and 2003. There are still dangerous pockets of tension in the east where the army backed by UN peacekeepers is trying to put an end to a military rebellion staged by former guerrillas never properly integrated in the national army as foreseen by peace agreements (see Fides 27 November 2006).
At the political level, Kabila, whose victory was recognised by adversary Jean-Pierre Bemba (who at first denounced him for fraud), must demonstrate that he is president of all Congolese. The in fact country appears divided into the west which voted for Bemba, and the east where Kabila won most of his votes. The new president is not very popular in the capital Kinshasa either, also because he does not speak Lingala, the language most spoken in west Congo.
At the social and economic level although rich in diamonds, uranium and metals such as molibden and coltan, Congo is one of the world’s poorest countries where every day more than a thousand people die of violence or hunger and disease.
This difficult situation demands improvement of state structures and services, still mostly destroyed after years of neglect on the part of the late dictator Mobutu and the wars that followed. According to a report published by the Belgian daily La Libre Belgique, to return to the same level of wealth as 1960, (year of independence from Belgium) Congo must reach and maintain an annual growth rate of 10% until 2050. The growth rate in 2006 is 5.7%.
To do this the country must take control of its natural resources. According to the same report, Congo receives only 13 million dollars a year from the foreign mining companies which exploit its resources. A situation of injustice repeatedly denounced by the local Catholic Church.
The country’s resources, for example the enormous hydroelectric potential of Congo’s many lakes and rivers, would benefit from correct collaboration between public and private enterprise. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 6/12/2006 righe 37 parole 455)