bdk, botswad armed groups. without too much detail, could you talk about how these pose newactors sort of international community tools that we sort of use and have relied on for a long time to address issues in the drc. steve: yes, thank you, alexis. i will quickly address bdk and potentially some of the parallels that one could drop between bdk and the phenomenon, if we can call it a phenomenon of sorts, as a collaborator a malicious expanding -- conglomerate of militias expanding. they draw on mystical, religious cult-like powers. the attached from a real political movement or political aspirations other than the idea of driving president kabila out. that vacuum of political legitimacy -- we have decentralization process that created new institutions where there was really no support for the new institutions, new governors, this sort of -- the same thing elsewhere where you have institutions that could potentially manage and have several years managed some of these local conflict that have not been able to r

so steve in particular, you mention bdk. mica, you touched on armed groups. without going into a ton of details due to time constraints, could you talk about how these emergent actors pose new challenges to international community tools that we've used, that we have relied on for a long time to address issues in drc? .. >> now, sort of vacuum of political legitimacy and the process that created new institutions where there was no support for those new institutions, new governors, this sort of, the same thing where you have institutions that could potentially manage and have for several years managed some of the local conflicts that haven't been able to respond and haven't been seen with legitimacy needed to sort of respond and voice channels of expression of discontent by different groups. again, i think there's a broad malaise with political institutions given lack of legitimacy and political parties. edps was a strong social network for decades, keeping communities together and largely keeping the region he willtively peaceful and the same in congo with oth