There was confusion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a tiny African country, last week. For two days, the world did not know whether the Congo's leader was dead or alive. Rebel leaders were claiming to have shot and killed President Laurent Kabila, but no one in the government would confirm it. "We don't know who is in charge of the country," said Patrick Mazimhaka, a leader in the neighboring country of Rwanda.
After 48 hours of uncertainty, the government finally issued a statement saying that Kabila was dead. His son, Major Joseph Kabila, who is the leader of the military, has taken over for now.
Kabila had become an unpopular leader. He was elected in 1997 with great hope that he could heal the country, which had been ruled for 32 years by a dictator named Mobuto Sese Seko. But as time went on, Kabila operated like a dictator too, and there were only more problems. A civil war that has been going on for more than two years has torn the nation and led more than a million people to abandon their homes and flee to nearby countries. The desperately poor people of the Congo are now even more fearful about the future.