NAMING DRC MINERAL-WAR PROFITEERS

Many often speak of the three-decade-long, Western-backed proxy war over natural resources in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in vague terms, leaving the public confused about why it’s happening, the players and the funders. 

Moreover, many in the imperialist-backed media frame it as a 'complex' war, obscuring that it is a resource war that would not be happening—at least not at its alarming scale—if the DRC wasn’t the world's most resource-rich country with an estimated $24 trillion of minerals underfoot to power global technological advancements.

In Episode 18 of our ‘Pan-African Attitude’ podcast, African Stream journalist Erick Gavala (@ErickGavala on Instagram) asked Maurice Carney, Friends of the Congo (@congofriends) co-founder and executive director, to break it all down. As you hear in this clip, a wide range of players, from individuals in the Great Lakes region to corporations on other continents, seek financial gain.

All the while, the war had k*lled more than 6 million Congolese by 2010 and internally displaced over 7 million by 2024, with a shocking 700,000 people displaced in eastern DRC since January.

If you are interested in hearing more, watch the whole episode on our X and Rumble accounts, and on YouTube (search for @ahmedkaballo4170).

Sources

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/12/17/tech/apple-microsoft-tesla-dell-congo-cobalt-mining/index.html

https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/are-these-tech-companies-complicit-in-human-rights-abuses-of-child-cobalt-miners-in-congo/ 

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/4829844-ending-africas-longest-and-deadliest-war/

https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/violence-democratic-republic-congo