“The Congo has been without proper infrastructure for decades under Mobutu, but the Congolese have never felt any poorer and unsafe than they do now,” says Nicolas-Patience Basabose, a Congolese political editor for LeCongolais, a weekly magazine based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Many Congolese blame Mr. Mobutu for having used Congo’s riches as his personal bank account, Mr. Basabose says, but at least Mobutu had a political network of supporters and a broad-based organization. “That alone, in the eyes of many Congolese, is far more than [President Joseph] Kabila has offered so far.”