Cash-strapped Congolese eye deep inequalities ahead of presidential election

Five years after graduating with a diploma in computer network maintenance, Georges Bamue, 27, still navigates the streets of Democratic Republic of Congo's capital as a motorcycle taxi rider, unable to find a job or raise enough to start a business in his trained field. Bamue, like millions of Congolese who will head to the polls on Dec. 20, has seen little improvement in living conditions despite Congo's vast critical minerals wealth, and promises made by President Felix Tshisekedi when he came to power in 2019. While economic growth in world's top supplier of battery-grade cobalt and the third largest copper producer, boosted by its mining sector reached over 8.5% in 2022, 62% of nearly 100 million Congolese living on less than two dollars a day.