A well-fed, eloquent figure, Mr Bemba is extremely popular in his home area of Gbadolite, in the north-west. Elsewhere in Congo he is regarded with suspicion: he comes from a family that become wealthy during the kleptocracy of Mobutu Sese Seko.If principle has been lacking in this war, money certainly has not. Laurent Kabila attracted emergency aid from Angola and particularly Zimbabwe by promising diamond concessions to senior generals. On the rebel side, mineral concessions were also divvied out, and ruthlessly controlled.Eighteen months ago, in a forest clearing outside Kisangani, I met a group of ragged diamond miners. They were preparing lunch, a bunch of caterpillars to be boiled for soup. Ugandan soldiers forced them to mine the diamonds free, they said. “If we refused, they whipped or tortured us,” Kombozi Owesaka said.There has been largely illegal exploitation of coltan, a dull, heavy mineral used in mobile phones, spy satellites and Sony PlayStations, and extraction of timber, coffee and gold.

Through the east, almost every family has lost at least one member to hunger, disease or violence Most have lost several. In the isolated province of Katanga, nominally under the control of Rwanda, villagers have been reduced to a semi-naked state, so much so that they are ashamed to come and seek the food they need.Rape has become a weapon of war, used with shocking brutality. Human Rights Watch says in one case assailants inserted guns into the vaginas of their victims, aged between five and 80, then shot them.The war has wreaked environmental havoc. For example, uncontrolled coltan mining near Bukavu has caused the near-extinction of a rare gorilla sub-species. To the north, elephants are in danger.Uganda has pulled out most of its troops, but Rwanda insists it must stay to ensure the Interahamwe does not return to Rwanda to finish off the murderous work of 1994. But diplomats and analysts are sceptical that the problem is as significant as claimed.

Some fear Rwanda has hegemonic ambitions, such as the annexation of eastern Congo. President Kabila will have more problems ditching his erstwhile Hutu allies than he pretends.Nobody expects the Congo war to be over in 90 days. Yesterday’s agreement deals with only one crucial aspect of a conflict that has sent tentacles in many directions. Yet signs of good faith from both sides could offer a solution. Greed, cynicism and opportunism have sustained Africa’s most complicated war. Only the absence of those evils will help solve it.Four years of bloody conflict* An estimated 2.5 million people have died, mostly through starvation and disease.