When Congo’s President, Felix Tshisekedi, squeezes his corpulent bulk into designer clothing, accessorised with expensive watches that would feed thousands of his immiserated citizens for years and climbs into a flying palace to shuttle around the world to weep crocodile tears and move the powerful to pity his long-suffering people, it is a diversionary dance in step with his Western audience

The city’s capture by M23 means neighbouring Burundi, an ally of the DRC government, now shares a border with an area controlled by the rebels, escalating the risk of cross-border conflict