Life in Kinshasa Congo

KINSHASA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO APRIL 21: Unidentified contestants in the Miss Congo contest prepare backstage to enter the stage on April 21, 2006 in central Kinshasa, Congo, DRC. About twenty girls from all over Congo, DRC competed to win the crown at the Grand Hotel in Kinshasa. Diane Muzungu from the Katanga province won. Congo DRC, returned to the Miss World contest only in 2005, after almost two decades absence. Kinshasa, a city of about eight million people is battling with bad infrastructure and no public transport. Congo, DRC is in ruins after forty years of mismanagement by the corrupt dictator and former president Mobuto Sese Seko. He fled the country in 1997 and a civil war started. The country is planning to hold general elections by July 2006, the first democratic elections in forty years.(Photo by Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images)