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DR Congo

Israel In Palestine, Rwanda In DRC

July 19, 2024 Ann Garrison, Black Agenda Report. , , , , ,
After October 7, 2023, as Israel began bombing Gaza and the world reacted in horror, a question murmured through the anti-war, anti-imperial left. Why not the Democratic Republic of the Congo? Why have the horrors in DRC gone on for so many years, with millions dead and millions displaced by the same decades-long conflict, but without a similar response? Since then the UN Group of Experts’ have reported that Rwandan troops inside the borders of DRC outnumber those of Rwanda’s M23 militia, which masquerades as Congolese. The report also concluded that Uganda backs M23. I spoke to Congolese journalist Akilimali Saleh Chomachoma , who likens the situations of Palestinians and Congolese.

The War In The Democratic Republic Of The Congo Will End

July 4, 2024 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. , , , ,
On 20 June, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) condemned the attacks on civilians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) ‘in the strongest terms’. In its press statement, the UNSC wrote that these attacks – by both the DRC’s armed forces and various rebel groups supported by neighbouring countries such as Rwanda and Uganda – ‘are worsening the volatile security and stability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in the region and further exacerbating the current humanitarian situation’. Five days later, on 25 June, the United Nations peacekeeping force in eastern DRC withdrew, in accordance with a December 2023 UNSC resolution that pledged both to provide security for the DRC’s general elections on 20 December and to begin to gradually withdraw the peacekeeping force from the country.

The Congolese People Proclaim: The Congo Is Not For Sale!

June 26, 2024 People's Dispatch. , , , , , , ,
The people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo continue to face paramilitary attacks against refugee camps and health centers, as the extraction of Congolese natural resources continues to produce unfettered conflict. Paramilitary conflict in the country has resulted in the displacement of seven million Congolese people, with more constantly forced to flee. In light of the ongoing violence in the DRC, the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research has published new dossier entitled, “The Congolese Fight for Their Own Wealth,” in recognition of the need for a better understanding of the colonial and imperial roots of resource extraction in the DRC, and the current fight against imperialism in the region.

Congolese Journalist: It’s Time To Stop Negotiating With Rwanda

February 25, 2024 Ann Garrison, Black Agenda Report. , , , ,
Rwanda’s M23 militia and Rwandan Special Forces have been advancing on Goma, the capital city of North Kivu Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). I had a Zoom conversation with Congolese journalist Akilimali Chomachoma, who is based in Goma. Ann Garrison: Akilimali, do you feel safe talking about the security situation there in the northeastern DRC? Akilimali Chomachoma: I'm not feeling safe as a journalist, but as a journalist, I have the duty to tell what is going on here. I have the duty to give testimony, I have the duty to give voice to all people who are suffering, to tell what actors here locally are doing.

Disappointing ´Rush To Judgment´ On China’s Role In The Congo

February 19, 2024 Dee Knight, Black Agenda Report. , , , , ,
China’s role has been to bring new, large-scale investment on a new basis: combined financing for industrial mining and public infrastructure – roads, railroads, dams, health and education facilities. The result was “After decades of almost non-existent industrial production, the country became and remains the world’s leading producer of cobalt and, by 2023, became the world’s third largest producer of copper.” The new deal “puts an end to the monopoly of certain Western countries and their large companies whose history shows that this exclusivity has not brought development to the country.” The arrangement has dramatically reduced the role of artisanal mining.

Myth-Busting: Dag Hammarskjöld, Katanga, And The Coup

February 14, 2024 Ludo De Witte, Black Agenda Report. , , , , ,
On an almost monthly basis the press, and scholars, focus on the death of UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld, in a plane crash near the Rhodesian town of Ndola, not far from the Congo-Katanga border, on the night of 17 – 18 September 1961. Accident or assassination attempt? And if it was an assassination, who was guilty? These are questions to which the UN itself is seeking answers. There is a lot of evidence to suggest that the plane was shot down. If this is indeed the case, we must look for the perpetrators in what was then Katanga, a Congolese province which, shortly after Congo’s independence, broke away from the central power with the powerful mining company Union Minière (Umicore) and local politicians in the entourage of Moïse Tshombe.

Investigation: Prince Harry Charity Linked To Horrific Abuses In Africa

January 30, 2024 Survival International. , , , , , ,
A charity with strong ties to Prince Harry has been funding rangers responsible for horrific abuses against Indigenous people in the Congo, including torture and rape, according to a major investigation published in the UK’s Mail on Sunday. The abuses have taken place in Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of Congo, which is managed by African Parks – Prince Harry is a member of their Board of Directors, a position to which he was “elevated” in 2023, after having served as their President for six years. The investigation has uncovered evidence of countless atrocities committed by African Parks’  “armed militia” against local Baka people.

Cobalt Red, How The Blood Of The Congo Powers Our Lives

January 25, 2024 Ann Garrison, Black Agenda Report. , , , , ,
“Unspeakable riches have brought the people of the Congo little other than unspeakable pain.” So writes Siddharth Kara in Cobalt Red, How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives . It’s one of the many poetic phrases that make this book easy on the ear but hard on the heart and mind. There’s pleasure in turning the pages of such finely crafted prose, pain in knowing that, if you have half a heart, you’ll never be able to see your smartphone, laptop, tablet, solar power system, or electric car quite the same way again, that you’ll see blood all over the supply chain that put them in your hand, on your roof, or in your driveway.

Crisis In The Democratic Republic Of Congo

December 30, 2023 Eugene Puryear, Liberation News. , , , , ,
Since 1996, at least 6 million people have been killed in successive conflicts in the eastern portion of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The same conflicts are largely responsible for the 6.9 million internally displaced people in the DRC today, one of the world’s largest populations of IDPs. Successive waves of violence have unfolded against a backdrop of a desperate struggle for the $24 trillion of mineral wealth embedded in Congolese soil. Despite immense wealth, nearly 60 million people — 64% of the country — live on less than $2.15 a day. One in six people living in extreme poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa are living in the DRC.

For Peace In The Congo, US And UK Must Hold Their Allies Accountable

September 27, 2023 Kambale Musavuli, People's Dispatch. , , , ,
Analyst Kambale Musavuli talks about the latest developments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where anger is mounting against the presence of foreign forces. He talks about the recent repression of those protesting the presence of UN forces and explains that the country needs a political situation. This calls for the US and UK to hold to account their allies Rwanda and Uganda who are backing rebel groups in the Congo. Kambale also talks about the recent actions of DRC President Felix Tshisekedi, the distance between his words and deeds, and his close collaboration with Israel.

Virtual Slave Labor In Congo’s Cobalt Mines

July 27, 2023 Ann Garrison, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
Maurice, you and I have talked many times for Black Agenda Report about the wartorn northeastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), North and South Kivu and Ituri. We’ve talked about the Rwandan and Ugandan military aggressors, but in the southeastern provinces—which were once a single province called Katanga—there’s a different, equally horrific kind of violence going on in the vast cobalt mines that we haven’t talked about here. That’s the violence against hundreds of thousands of artisanal miners living in the most horrific conditions, the equivalent of slavery except that they can't be bought and sold.

Congolese Students Are Taking On Big Oil

July 22, 2023 Alexandria Shaner and Pascal Mirindi, Common Dreams. , , ,
Student activists are traveling thousands of miles across the Democratic Republic of Congo to mobilize communities against the expansion of Big Oil. Pétrole Non Merci, or Petrol No Thanks, is a national campaign to oppose the proposed sale of 27 oil blocks and three gas blocks, most of which overlap protected areas. Anglo-French oil company Perenco recently bid to buy the new blocks and would export the oil using the EACOP pipeline. The campaign has a two-pronged strategy. First, they are mobilizing communities where the new oil blocks are located to build local power and hold officials accountable.

If Capitalism Is To Be Fought, It Has To Be Fought In The DRC 

December 28, 2022 Tanupriya Singh, People's Dispatch. , , ,
On Friday, December 23, the M23 rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) officially handed over its positions in Kibumba, in North Kivu province, to the East African Community Regional Force (EACRF), citing the recommendations of the summit held in Luanda, Angola, in November. However, days after M23 announced its withdrawal from its seized positions in Kibumba, displaced communities have still not been able to return amid reports that rebel fighters are still present in the area. Meanwhile, fighting between M23, Congolese troops (FARDC), and an anti-M23 ‘self-defense’ militia continued on Monday, December 26, in the settlements of Bishusha and Tongo in North Kivu’s Rutshuru territory.

If The US Told Rwanda And Uganda To Get Out Of Congo, The War Would End

December 19, 2022 Ann Garrison, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
The European Union has sanctioned five members of different armed groups operating in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), including the spokesman for the M23 militia. It did not, however, sanction Rwanda, Uganda or the Rwandan and Ugandan presidents, despite decades of UN Group of Experts reports that the militias operating in the eastern DRC are largely Rwandan and Ugandan, though they typically claim to be Congolese. I spoke to Nixon Katembo, Congolese journalist and executive producer with the South African Broadcasting Corporation, about the history of the conflict and the situation on the ground today.

After Two Decades Of War, The Congolese People Say Enough Is Enough

December 18, 2022 Tanupriya Singh, People's Dispatch. , ,
On Monday, December 12, a meeting was held between the M23 rebel group, the Congolese armed forces (FARDC), the commander of the joint East African Community (EAC) force, the Joint Expanded Verification Mechanism (JMWE), the Ad-Hoc Verification Mechanism, and the UN peacekeeping force, MONUSCO, in Kibumba in the Nyiragongo territory in the North Kivu province located in the eastern part of the DRC. The meeting was held in the wake of reports of fighting between M23 and the FARDC, just days after the rebel group had pledged to “maintain a ceasefire” in the mineral-rich region. M23 is widely acknowledged to be a proxy force of neighboring Rwanda. On Tuesday, December 6, M23 announced that it was ready to “start disengagement and withdraw” from occupied territory, and that it supported “regional efforts to bring long-lasting peace to the DRC.”
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