Far from Congo’s battlefield

ON A rainy Sunday, Marie-José sits in her dark home in Masina, one of Kinshasa's poorest neighbourhoods, which has not had electricity for several days. Her husband, Pierre, is a soldier in the national army. Under the late Mobutu Sese Seko he was an officer, earning enough to keep his family alive. But these days, the only soldiers who earn regular salaries are those who swept President Laurent Kabila to power in May 1997. Pierre has not been paid for three months. Marie-José augments their income by selling cold drinks from her home, but it is not enough to send her seven children to school.