ABSTRACT
This chapter serves to situate the practice of humanitarian intervention challenges of ruling the Congo. Intervention is part of the bigger struggle to rule the Congo, often unable to reflect on and to assess its own strategic importance. The Congo became independent in 1960 and held its first democratic elections. After independence, the 'Congo crisis' ensued - 'a mixture of a civil, a secessionist and a proxy war from a Belgian perspective, conveniently plunged the country into turmoil from 1960-65. The history of ruling the Congo highlights the challenges of rule and political economy are immense and substantial changes will inevitably take time. The short-term perspective of United Nation (UN) peacekeeping and NGO humanitarian barely touches on reality that international intervention in its contemporary forms is part and parcel of Congolese strategies of rule and a co-constitutive feature of Congolese in the east taken into account when reflecting on the use and legitimacy of humanitarian intervention in the Congo.
