Diplomacy in the Congo Conflict: An Analysis of the Efforts from 2001-2018

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has nearly 86 million inhabitants as per the March 2019 United Nations estimates. About 40% of the population reside in urban areas. With its 80 million hectares of arable land and over 1,100 minerals and precious metals, the DRC has the potential to become one of the richest countries on the continent and a driver of African growth but it has sustained political turmoil since independence. There have been several diplomatic efforts towards the resolution of this conflict yet none has succeeded to end the conflict. The main objective of this research is to find why conflict has out-lived these efforts. The study used the qualitative research design hence mostly relied on secondary data from books, journals, reports, public records as well as few primary data sources such as official conference documents. The research mainly used Barbara F. Walter’s theory on Settling Civil Wars and governance Theory, which seeks to investigate why some civil wars end in successfully implemented peace settlements while others continue for decades. It also uses North and Wallis & Weingast’s theory of New Conceptual Framework for Recorded Human History, which explains the frequent eruptions of violence in the nation states and the reasons why development policies fail in states. The selected diplomatic efforts by the African Union, SADC and the Catholic Church have focused on addressing the looming problem by bringing different communities together and enforcing ceasefires but have overlooked factors that caused, catalysed and prolonged the conflict from the onset. This study’s main finding is that poor governance is both the root and result of the Congo conflict. The finding therefore led to the recommendation that any diplomatic effort geared towards finding lasting solutions for the conflict in Congo must confront this fact as well as other historical causes of the conflict.