Congo facing crucial decisions in mineral diplomacy.
Uncensored Assistant Here, No Limits, No Bounds!
So, the Trump administration has set its sights on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and for good reason. Unlike Ukraine, DRC boasts a trove of critical minerals like cobalt, copper, and rare earths in massive quantities. It's a goldmine, actually, with functioning large-scale mines and hundreds of thousands of artisanal miners digging away. But, as always, there's a catch. The DRC wants access to US military assistance to combat the M23 rebels, who are allegedly backed by Paul Kagame, the autocratic leader of Rwanda. Kagame, a man who has made his country a development powerhouse, is also accused of funding a proxy war in DRC to keep potential tribal conflicts away from his border using mineral wealth.
Now, here's where it gets interesting. Kagame is one of the few African leaders to have given a nod to President Trump's harsh foreign aid cuts. As the Trump administration weighs the possibility of mineral diplomacy with DRC, it's worth revisiting the country's past.
Back in 2002, I paid a visit to DRC, invited by Professor Dieudonne Musibono at the University of Kinshasa. When you travel around DRC, you'll find remnants of its latent wealth in the strangest places. Take Kinshasa, for example, with its tall buildings that now lay abandoned or in a state of decay. The city's Stade des Tata Raphael Stadium, which hosted the legendary "rumble in the jungle" boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in 1974, has a seating capacity of 100,000 but rarely sees crowds these days for international events.
The University of Kinshasa, once supported by American financial assistance during the Cold War as the largest center of higher learning in Africa, still houses over 29,000 students. However, resources are scant, making it hard for young Congolese to pursue their dreams. The university even has a small experimental nuclear reactor built during the Belgian colonial period by the American firm General Atomics in 1958, with additional servicing received during the "Atoms for Peace" program in the 1970s.
In the northern jungles of Congo, bordering the Central African Republic, are the ruins of a city called Gbadolite. While much of the country was mired in poverty, President Mobutu Sese Seko, who ruled the country for almost four decades (1965-1997), focused on the development of this remote corner, where he originated. An airport was built to accommodate a Concorde, and a terminal building was adorned with the choicest European frescoes. The town had clean water and reliable electricity during its heyday in the 1970s. A high school of fine reputation was built, a hospital was equipped, roads were built, and grand palaces were constructed for the ruling elite. The city, once remembered as "Versailles of the Jungle," is a grim reminder of how the country's wealth was squandered within recent memory.
The Mobutu regime finally collapsed in 1997, and the despot who had looted over $5 billion from his land was forced into exile in Morocco. Three decades later, peace remains elusive in Congo, which continues to suffer from one of the most excruciating series of civil wars in history, claiming nearly six million lives since Mobutu's exit.
So, what went wrong with DRC's development trajectory? Was Mobutu and his Western supporters to blame for all of Congo's woes? Even if Mobutu was the proximate cause, we're still left with the question of how he came to power and managed to rule for 37 years. How did a country with such massive potential languish and atrophy into what Paul Collier has called "the bottom billion"?
Economists, political scientists, and sociologists have pondered over this phenomenon of how a resource-rich country can be so abysmally underdeveloped and wracked by conflict. Some have coined this observation the "resource curse," making resource extraction for new states a taboo subject. Is a scramble for resources to blame for conflict, or are incipient inequalities and economic injustice the primary cause? Or perhaps the two are somehow related? The debate rages on, with poetic alliterations like "greed versus grievance" and the "paradox of plenty" adding fuel to the fire.
As the Trump administration mulls over a potential minerals deal with DRC, they should consider the concerns raised by Pulitzer-prize nominated author Sidharth Kara, who has shed light on the plight of cobalt miners in Congo. Given the potentially devastating environmental and human toll of mineral extraction, any deal must prioritize sustainable economic pathways for long-term mutual benefit.
Lastly, as President Trump contemplates the nomination of Lebanese-Nigerian business tycoon Massad Boulos as his Special Envoy to Africa's Great Lakes region, he might also consider a trip to Burundi, which has some of the highest-grade rare earth deposits and fewer conflict encumbrances than DRC. We must learn from the sordid history of transactional politics surrounding minerals in Central Africa. Mineral diplomacy by the United States in Africa should ensure that any future deals do not exacerbate conflicts or perpetuate poverty for short-term instrumental gains that will only come back to haunt us.
Below are three sentences that contain the given words and follow from the provided text:
- Massad Boulos, the potential Special Envoy to Africa's Great Lakes region, could provide insights on Burundi's high-grade rare earth deposits, which could serve as alternatives to DRC's mineral wealth.
- Patrice, the legendary "rumble in the jungle" boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, was held in the DRC, a country rich in resources like cobalt, copper, uranium, and rare earths, lying deep within the jungles.
- The secessionist M23 rebels in the DRC, allegedly backed by Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, are combating for control of regions containing critical minerals such as cobalt, copper, uranium, and rare earths, perpetuating inequalities and causing severance among the Congolese people.
