Economy of Congo

But all together, this region of Congo exports diamonds worth $30m every month.

Investment 

With its history of wars and violence, DR Congo is considered a high-risk country and banks have in the past been reluctant to loan money to Congo's private companies, let alone those that are state owned.

However, Mr Luabeya managed to recently secure a $30m dollar investment that he expects will double MIBA's production within five years.

MIBA, which still has 70,000 square km of unexploited diamond deposits, is planning to create new partnerships and to open two other mines in the next three years.

South African diamond giant De Beers and Australian mining giant BHP Belton have committed themselves to joint ventures with MIBA which should be finalised in the weeks after the elections.

According to Mr Luabeya, the joint ventures, estimated to bring in an investment of $450m, should create 10,000 jobs and boost diamond production from 6m to 40m carats per year.

This would generate a turnover of $1bn per year, at least 30% of which would be pure profit.

• Aids

  Those who live along the banks of the Congo river in this sprawling and dilapidated city are used to hardship, despite the potential wealth of this vast country. It was plundered by Mobutu, ripped apart by foreign armies in the war, and now faces economic upheaval as the new President, Joseph Kabila, scraps low fuel prices and lets the currency float. That move may please the IMF, but it has forced up prices, which makes life even harder for those with HIV/AIDS and unable to earn a living. For those who can afford treatment, Kinshasa has a general hospital, the largest in the country. Patients pay for everything their beds, treatment, medicines where available, even HIV tests, and rely on families or friends to bring them food. Even a public ward like this costs two dollars a day, well out of the reach of many who are sick. Those with tuberculosis, which is often AIDS-related, do get free TB drugs, under a scheme run in Kinshasa by a consortium of NGOs and charities. But there are no free drugs in the maternity ward, where we found a mother weeping over her dead child. When a mother is HIV-positive, her youngest two or three children are often found to be infected too. But if there were the will and the money, this could be tackled. According to the government's own figures, at least 12% of the children born in Kinshasa are HIV-positive. And that could easily be stopped with a course of drugs to the mother in labour and the new-born. But it's simply not happening. The drugs are not here, and even if they were, no-one could afford them. They would have to be provided free. There is, of course, the danger that children saved in this way could soon become orphans if no steps are also taken to prolong the lives of their mothers. And the orphans of parents killed by AIDS now present a massive social problem for the Congo and for Africa. An English lesson at St Valentine school, out near Kinshasa airport. Almost all the children are orphans, their fees paid by a Congolese charity. Judith Tudiongonga is just 15. Her mother died of AIDS three years ago, her father one year ago. Now when she leaves school, she has to walk home in her broken shoes, a journey of nearly an hour, and act like a mother herself. Her two brothers and sister, aged from nine to six, have been waiting for her return. They are a sad, quiet, young family, worried about their future. Judith wants to find a job when she leaves school so she can continue to look after them. But she's terrified that they could all lose their home. An aunt, a member of her father's family, is trying to seize the house, a common practice in Kinshasa, where a surviving wife and children often find themselves evicted after a husband has died.