Pompier-pyromanocracy. Mbusa Nyamwisi and the DR Congo’s inflammable post-settlement political order

This chapter analyzes how the electoral and wider political inclusion of ex-belligerents in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has contributed to the militarization of its political order in the east. By exploring the post-settlement trajectory of one particular politico-military entrepreneur, Antipas Mbusa Nyamwisi, it shows how this inclusion has contributed to ongoing violence. Furthermore, it argues that in comparison to the pre-war order, politico-military entrepreneurs have become more numerous, more independent of the political center, and more active also at lower levels of the power pyramid. As such, the post-settlement order seems to be characterized by a type of “democratization” of the strategy of the pompier-pyromane. This democratization unleashes a dynamic that often acquires a momentum of its own, due to the multiplicity of the involved factions and their complex and ever-changing alliances. As a result, not everyone who divides is still able to rule, and not everyone who ignites is still able to extinguish.