EU steps back, as tensions build ahead of Congo elections

On seizing power from Zaire's long-standing dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997, Laurent-Desire Kabila changed the country's name to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It was not until 2006, however, after a tumultuous decade of conflict in which Kabila himself was assassinated, that democratic elections were actually held.

The international community piled into the Central Africa state in the run-up to the tightly contested poll, keen to draw a line under the region's recent bloody...