I just finished Colette Braeckman's book, L'Homme qui Répare les Femmes (i.e. The Man Who Repares Women), where she well describes the origins of the conflict(s) in the Eastern Congo through Dr. Mukwege's biography. As a journalist specialized in Central Africa, she explains the complexity of today's situation, how many players and militias act in the region, but also how dramatic the consequences of the wars have been for the local populations.
In a gripping prose, she highlights the great challenge that constitutes the Kivus for Kinshasa. Sustainable peace can only be achieved by a very smart policy there. Congo's next leader not only needs to be aware of all the happenings in North and South-Kivus and their origins, but must also be a very intelligent strategist and diplomat to be able to deal with Congo's neighbouring countries to pacify the region on the long term, and eventually bring the whole country on its way to prosperity - according to its natural resources.
A book worth reading! 

Eastern Congo is a region governed by anarchy, greed, and insane violence. Not only the local population suffers from the conflicts there, but it also destroys wild life in the Rain Forest.

Since 1996, more than 283 rangers died in national parks of Eastern Congo as a consequence of assaults from the Mai-Mai, the Lord Resistance Army (LRA), the Congolese army and other militias. In Upemba National Park, there is almost no hunting-leopard any longer and there are but 40 zebras in the whole area of 11,000 km². But what can these rangers do, when we know that only 180 rangers are in charge of 36,500 km² in Salonga Park?

After the Congolese independence, one could have counted some 20,000 elefants there, but they are not more than 2,000 nowadays. The main reason is the reapparence and the current success of ivory traficking. Luiz Arranz, Manager of Garamba Park, warns: "If we don't do anything, in twenty years, there won't be elefants in Central Africa any longer." In Virunga Park, the population of hippopotamuses has decreased from 60,000 to 500 individuals since 1996.  

But poachers don't sell only ivory: they sell also meat. Which meat you can find up to London, Paris, and Brussels. Again: check out what you eat and where it comes from!

Source: Magazine "Afrique Asie", September 2013