Only just staying in one piece

The Economist: Only just staying in one piece

Since last year's historic elections, political and economic progress has stalled, while war drums are rumbling in the country's east.

IF EVER there were an urgent case for change in Congo after years of neglect and war, it is Kinshasa's general hospital. The emergency room reeks of stale urine. The sick lie outside, while relatives collect money for treatment. Life-threatening cases are accepted but nothing happens until someone stumps up the cash—even if the patients die.

Nine months after Congo's elections (the first for more than 40 years), which were meant to mark a fresh start after a war that left some 4m dead, Dr Mbwebwe Kabamba, a surgeon in the hospital, is expecting no miracle overnight. But, like millions who walked miles, risked attacks by gunmen or simply stood in the rain to vote, he is looking for signs that those in power might improve the situation.

Candidates made spectacular donations of thousands of dollars to the hospital while they campaigned. But the doctor says none has been back since. “Many say that the elections were a waste of time,” he explains. “They don't see a difference between those in power before and those in power now.”

Change, so far, has been small. Joseph Kabila, who was nominated president in 2001 after his father, Laurent, was assassinated, is still president. But now he has a five-year mandate, after winning 58% of the vote. His first five years were spent trying to defeat rebels backed by the armies of neighbouring countries and then holding together an unwieldy transitional government. Now he must rebuild a country that was already crippled by decades of dictatorship and corruption before it descended into the war that lasted from 1998 to 2003, the most lethal anywhere since the second world war. …