What ‘Dr Love’ says about DR Congo

"it is referred to as dr love", says aimé lokulutu. document-teur love, to be unique - in the french way. it is a smartphone app to assist human beings inside the democratic republic of congo find answers to awkward questions about sex.

dr lokulutu is happy with his creation: it's a congolese approach to a congolese problem. speaking approximately sex, he tells me in his deep, gravelly, barry white voice, is regularly taboo.

the dr love app is near his heart. before he qualified as a doctor he'd were given his then female friend pregnant. he'd heard that if a woman took  anti-malaria pills earlier than intercourse they might act as a contraceptive.

his son, now 21, is a manufactured from this wrong facts. so he is out to ensure others get it proper.

but dr lokulutu, like many congolese people, has a hassle. he wishes investors. when protests loom, the authorities switches off the net, so he and his body of workers are not able to work.

commercial
"on this context, no one will give you money. it's impossible to plan due to the fact nobody is aware of what is going to manifest the next day," he says.

the protests stem from president joseph kabila's reluctance to leave energy. his 2d mandate ended more than a year ago and the charter says he can't have a third. but he is nonetheless there.

he says he wishes some other year as president, so as to finish a census and prepare properly for elections.

the competition says he had 15 years to try this before his 2d mandate ran out. they need to pay attention him say out loud that he's going to step down.

in the meantime - like dr lokulutu's business plans - this usa is on keep. and there is a lot catching up to do.

buried treasure
one adventure we made - thru forests within the east - took a whole spine-numbing day. on an excellent street it might have taken an hour.

you may healthy luxembourg into this united states of america 900 times. however luxembourg has two times as many kilometres of tarmac.colleges and hospitals - in which they exist at all - urgently need investment.

and dr congo has the buried treasure to pay for it.

it has big reserves of copper and diamonds and is the sector's fundamental producer of cobalt - the mineral needed to make the batteries for the electric automobiles we're rushing to shop for.

instead, the congolese are searching in their rear-view mirror. and what they see approaching is a go back to instability and war.the remaining struggle ended slightly 15 years ago, and for lots, reminiscences of it are nevertheless sparkling.

eastern dr congo is a -hour flight from the capital, kinshasa.

government manage there's weak. militias still hold sway, and a map by way of a set tracking them looks like patchwork of greater than a hundred and twenty zones.

presentational gray line
dr congo: what you need to know
civil struggle broke out within the democratic republic of congo, then zaire, in 1997
that year, laurent kabila took strength before being assassinated in 2001
he was succeeded with the aid of his son, joseph
the war led to 2003, with six million human beings lifeless
after serving  phrases, joseph kabila became because of go away workplace in 2016 but remains in power
read more: dr congo us of a profile

dr congo: too rich for its own excellent

presentational gray line
the united countries is a first-rate participant right here. with church buildings and charities, it tries to fill the gaps left with the aid of an overstretched and suffering government.

standard derrick mgwebi heads the un peacekeeping force. it is the biggest within the global however as the general is aware of, there are limits to what it could obtain.

addressing the nation on radio okapi, a station also funded by the un, he stated that without a democratic transition, with out an effort to quit the political deadlock, there will always be conflicts.

and then there are people who are fleeing the violence - the internally displaced people, or idps.

simply final year by myself violence in the primary kasai area pressured every other million human beings into internal exile.