ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the enormous setbacks to all development work, including family planning, that crippled the country for a decade in the wake of the 1991 pillage. Mobutu’s army – disgruntled over low, irregularly paid wages – destroyed buildings and looted Kinshasa; the destruction then spread to other cities. In this highly volatile environment, all international donors evacuated expatriate staff and terminated further funding of development work. The Cold War was over, and Mobutu could no longer count on the support of the US and other Western allies. With staggering levels of inflation and devastating economic fallout from the pillage, the population struggled to subsist. The Association Santé Familiale (ASF) with support from PSI struggled to make condoms available in Kinshasa. The ECZ managed a small family planning operation in Kinshasa. By 1997, an ailing Mobutu, totally apathetic to the needs of his people, was easily deposed by Laurent-Désiré Kabila, who seized power and renamed the country the Democratic Republic of Congo. Living conditions improved marginally, but by 1998 Kabila had embroiled eight neighboring countries in the Second Congo War. In all sectors, these were known as les années de vâches maigres (the years of skinny cows).
