Axe in Congo: Training the Congolese Army

by DAVID AXE

Kinshasa — Soft power can be tedious, exhausting, frustrating. A hundred U.S. Army doctors and medics are in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, to train several hundred medics from the Congolese Forces Armees de la Republique Democratique du Congo. The Americans’ idea: to leave the Congolese more capable and more professional than how they found it, hopefully contributing to slowly increasing stability in this troubled Central African country. But even these modest goals are easier said than done. For starters, Congo is hot, remote and under-developed. Plus, there are huge language and technological barriers between the Americans and Congolese, as depicted in my video report above.