Can Trump's Peace Initiative Stop the Congo's Thirty-Year War?

"When I visited the king of Bukumu, Mwami Butsitsi Kahembe IV Isaac, he was dressed in a crisp white caftan, with the skin of a leopard killed by his great-grandfather slung over his shoulders. A crown of matching fur sat on his head, and an ivory-tipped scepter announced his rank. The surroundings were less elegant. The king told me ruefully that his ancestral palace had been destroyed thirty years ago by combatants from the Hutu tribe,"

"It was a bright fall morning, but the sky was hazy with smoke from Mt. Nyiragongo, the volcano that loomed thousands of feet above. The Bukumu kingdom occupies about a hundred and thirty square miles in the province of North Kivu, and large portions of it are covered by black lava scree. Nyiragongo has erupted several times in recent decades. In 2021, lava consumed an entire neighborhood, killing dozens of the king's subjects and forcing thousands more to flee."

"At the time of the eruption, Mwami Isaac was twenty-six, but already several years into his reign; he had taken the throne after studying political science at a university in Goma. "I rule over every aspect of my people's lives," he said. "They see me as the keeper of their traditions and as a symbol of unity, as well as the bridge between tradition and modernity.""

Mwami Butsitsi Kahembe IV Isaac leads the Bukumu kingdom in North Kivu from an office on Goma's edge after his ancestral palace was destroyed thirty years ago by Hutu combatants. He appears in ceremonial dress, escorted by armed bodyguards and a chauffeur-driven Land Cruiser. The Bukumu territory includes lava-scarred terrain below Mt. Nyiragongo, which erupted in 2021, consuming a neighborhood, killing dozens and displacing thousands. Isaac took the throne young after studying political science and presents himself as keeper of traditions and a bridge between tradition and modernity. He acknowledged inability to uphold some customs tied to volcanic eruptions, citing ancestral sacrifices, including cow

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