The DRC is living a quasi-civil war for the last 25 years or so, following Rwanda's genocide. It did calm down in the 2000s, almost managed to stop but then smartphone happened, and they have open air mines of the stuff we use for touchscreens, and the mineral is used to pay for weapons and salaries. Jihadists tactics in the Sahel are inspired from the DRC civil war one (rape and genital mutilation as terror weapons, random executions).