DESTINATION DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
When Laurent Kabila toppled the autocratic ruler of Zaire, Mobutu Sese Seko, in mid-1997, he changed the country's name to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and brought a big bag of popular optimism along with him. It didn't take long, however, for the nation's citizens to realise they'd flopped from the frying pan straight into the fire. Like Mobutu, President Kabila both outlawed political opposition parties and censored the press, all the while doing little to alleviate the country's crippling poverty and keeping a distance from the political forces that helped bring him to power. Little more than a year after Kabila took control of the country, the DRC was back in the grip of civil war.
In early August 1998, anti-Kabila rebels (reportedly with the support of Uganda and Rwanda, Kabila's former allies) took control of several key border towns in eastern Congo and began pushing toward the capital, Kinshasa. Angola and Zimbabwe jumped into the game, bolstering Kabila's forces with guns and soldiers, and the rebels were halted at the city's borders. The ensuing months of high tensions and chronic bloodshed have left Congo's security situation at best 'unstable,' its infrastructure in shambles and many of its citizens in fear for their lives. As for travellers, the DRC remains a no-go zone.
