Africa’s Heart of Darkness, the Democratic Republic of Congo has long been considered a basket case. Should it succeed in building a lasting peace, its potential is almost limitless.

Carpeted by vast swaths of rain forest and bisected by the Congo River, the country straddles the equator like a lumbering giant. To the west, the country’s eponymous river gushes to the foaming Livingstone Falls before emptying into the Atlantic. In the east are more precipitous landscapes: a series of volcanoes and the Great Lakes merge into East Africa’s famous Rift Valley. Tectonic activity has also endowed the eastern part of the country with immense mineral riches, including copper, diamond and uranium.

Loaded with potential but with not much to show for it, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s economy has suffered dramatically in recent years from the seemingly endless cycle of war, corruption, nepotism and large scale government incompetence. Ongoing problems include inflation, reduced national output and increased external debt. Despite the rich seam of mineral wealth, most of the population continues to love in a state of abject poverty thanks to regular military skirmishes, government instability and a lack of foreign investment.