Resource Exploitation and Economic Dependency in the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a Central African country with a population of approximately 109 million people and is the most populous Francophone nation. The capital and largest city in the country is Kinshasa. It has several neighbours namely Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Angola, Zambia, the Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo and South Sudan. The Congo got its independence from Belgium on 30^th June 1960. It is well known that the DRC is one of the wealthiest countries in terms of natural resources. This is because it has vast mineral wealth, wildlife and tropical forests. In spite of its wealth, the DRC has very high rates of poverty meaning that it is affected by the resource curse like many African countries. In addition, the country has faced political instability and wars since the 1990s after the outbreak of wars in the neighboring Rwanda and Burundi. Unfortunately, the DRC’s vast wealth has acted as a magnet for opportunists including those who prefer to use violence to achieve their objectives.

Natural Resource Exploitation

The Democratic of the Congo has the largest tropical rainforests in the African continent. The forests in the country’s eastern region have rich diversity and are one of the forests which have survived since the ice age in Africa. Today, approximately 45% of the country is covered by forests that provide habitats for large mammals which are endangered in many other African countries. Moreover, the DRC can be described as a very wet country as it has nearly 900 km3 of internal renewable water resources that make up a quarter of African freshwater resources. For example, it is has the  Congo River which is the second longest African river after the River Nile and is the deepest river in the world. The Congo River is an important part of the ecosystem as its basin is surrounded by lush vegetation and fertile soil. The DRC also has very fertile soil and if well utilized, it can provide food for millions of people around the world.

The DRC has vast oil and gas resources. The discoveries in the country now mean that the country has the second largest crude oil reserves in Southern and Central Africa after Angola. The nation has three sedimentary basins on its territory. The first is the Central Basin that extends offshore past the Congo River estuary, the second is the Coastal Basin located in Central Kongo while the third is the Grabens Albertine and Tanganyika which extends from the  southern tip of Lake Tanganyika on the DRC Zambian border to the Uganda DRC border. Currently, the country only produces 25,000 barrels of oil per day from the Coastal Basin even though it has reserves than exceed 5 billion barrels. In addition, the DRC is estimated to have over 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas and methane in its three main petroleum deposits.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is famous for its mining industry as its has the some of the richest mineral resources in the continent. The minerals resources mined in the country include diamonds, copper, coal, cobalt, gold, tantalum (coltan), tin, silver, uranium and manganese. The DRC is the largest produce of cobalt ore globally. The Katanga province has the largest mines in the country with the ability to produce millions of tonnes of copper and cobalt ore annually. With 80% of the world’s coltan reserves in the world, the country is vital to the world’s industries especially in the production of key technologies such as chips, computers and phones. In addition, the country has approximately 30% of the globe’s diamonds reserves.  Moreover, it is estimated that the DRC has nearly $24 trillion of untapped mineral deposits.

Pre-Independence

The DRC’s natural resources have often been a source of misfortune for the Congolese people even before the country achieved its independence.  In the late 19^th century, King Leopold II of Belgium declared his intention to colonize the Kongo Kingdom and used terror to achieve his objectives while lying that he had a philanthropic desire to spread Christianity to the kingdom’s residents. Initially, the resource which was exploited by under Leopold II was ivory. However, the rubber boom in the late 1890s made the king jump at the opportunity to sow numerous rubber trees in the country. During this time, the men had to work and reach their quotas an d if the quotas were not met, they men would have their hands cut off while others would also face executions. As a result, the population in the country shrank due to the harsh conditions associated with the production of rubber, infections, murder, starvation and other depopulation efforts. Historians estimate that nearly 10 million people were killed during the reign of King Leopold II.

Corruption from Within

Five years after the country gained its independence, Mobutu Sese Seko emerged as the new leader of the nation and was viewed as a western darling and a fresh start for the renamed Republic of Zaire. In 1971, Mobutu made a decision to nationalize multiple foreign-owned companies, mostly in the mining sector. The companies obtained by the regime were placed in the hands of Mobutu and his friends. The wealth generated by the companies was embezzled for personal enrichment meaning that the population did not benefit and continued to live in poverty. In 1997, Mobutu was overthrown after the country was invaded by Rwanda and Uganda. The new leader, Laurent-Desire Kabila took over and changed the country’s name to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Unfortunately, he was not able to end the corruption and tribalism in the country. In addition, he was under immense pressure from foreign actors who wanted mineral concessions from his government. He also faced war and violence from the Rwandan army which refused to withdraw from the country and went on to plunder the vast natural resources in the eastern region.

The culture of corruption in the DRC extends beyond the presidency. The natural resources sector in the government is well known for corruption and lack of transparency. State-owned corporations and well connected foreign companies dominate the mining sector and often act with total impunity without any regard to the interests of the population. The revenue obtained from the sector is routinely siphoned by the ruling elites to sustain their lavish lifestyles. The logging sector is also riddled with corruption due its high profitability. In fact, it is estimated that informal and illegal logging account for approximately 90% of all logging activities. Most of the illegal logging permits are issued to the political elites in the country as part of the rent-seeking economy in the DRC.

Without a doubt, the corruption in the country is a major problem as it is estimated that the DRC loses nearly a fifth of all revenue generated from the mining sector to mismanagement and corruption. Over $750 million paid to the tax agencies and the state-owned mining corporation, Gecamines, disappeared from 2013 to 2015. Most people in the country believe that the money was embezzled by President Joseph Kabila and his cronies. As expected, the victims were the impoverished people of the Congo because that money was supposed to be spent on public services and to improve the dilapidated infrastructure in the country.

Conflicts and Exploitation by Neighboring Countries.

The First Congo War began in 1996 and ended in 1997. The war was an invasion by Ugandan and Rwandan forces to overthrow the Mobutu government. The invading forces were backed by western countries such as the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The Rwandan forces also wanted to eliminate Interahamwe militants and force the return of at least two million refugees who had fled Rwanda due to the civil war which led to the overthrow of the Habyrimana regime. Some of the Rwandan refugees had formed militant formations which exploited the population and the rich mineral wealth in eastern DRC. At the time, the Mobutu government was weak and was unable to contain the activities of the refugees. This forced Rwanda and Uganda to invade and install Laurent Desire Kabila hoping that he would be more friendly than the previous government. Soon after, new government and the Kagame regime fell out leading Kabila to demand the withdrawal of the Rwandan forces who were stealing the mineral wealth in the east.

            The Second Congo War which took place in 1998-2003 started as a result of Kabila’s desire to forcibly remove Ugandan and Rwandan forces from Congolese territory. Unlike the first war, the Second Congo War involved 9 African countries and 25 rebel groups earning it the name “Africa’s Great War.” The rebel groups were backed by Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda. On the other hand, the Kabila government was backed by Chad, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia. The main aim of the war was to gain control of the rich resources in the eastern region and to gain political power in Congo. During the course of the war, Rwanda and Uganda fell out leading the two to fight each other in what became known as the Kisangani war as both sides wanted to control the lucrative coltan, diamond and gold trade. The fact that the minerals in the east were so valuable led to the prolongation of the war as rebel groups and the Rwandan army were able to finance themselves by selling the minerals to the international markets. In 2001, Laurent Kabila was assassinated and replaced by his son Joseph Kabila. In 2002, the warring parties signed a peace agreement in Pretoria, South Africa.

            In spite of the peace agreement and the end of the 2^nd Congo War, violence and conflicts in the DRC continued as Rwanda and Uganda changed their tactics and relying on armed rebel groups to exploit eastern Congo. Rebel groups such as the Mai Mai, Nyatura and the Ugandan Lord’s .Resistance Army continued to cause chaos and loot the east. As a result of these activities, Rwanda became became the largest exporter of coltan even though it had no mines inside Rwandan territory.

International Involvement and Dependency

            Throughout its young history, the DRC suffered international intervention from powerful actors, mostly Western countries such as the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. After independence, the US president Eisenhower ordered the assassination of the popular, democratically elected Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba out of fear that the country’s vast natural resources including uranium would fall under communist Soviet control. Afterwards, the Western countries supported Mobutu until the 1990s. It is also well known that US president Bill Clinton supported the overthrow of the Habyraminna government by the Kagame regime with the aim of overthrowing Mobutu using the new Rwandan regime to open the country up for international  investment. Although the west supported Mobutu, it was not happy with his policies of nationalizing the mines. As a result, they decided to get rid of him by supporting Rwanda and Uganda to do the dirty job. It is noteworthy that the 1990s were a period of technological revolution as personal computers and phones started to become widely adopted. As such, the demand for Congolese minerals was very high and international companies wanted unrestricted access to these resources. To achieve this, the US, UK and Canada were willing to do whatever it took even if it meant that millions of people in Congo, Burundi and Rwanda would die.

The other country which is heavily involved in the DRC is China. Unlike the west, China does not pursue violent means of influencing the country. Instead, it prefers to offer economic deals such as loans and the construction of infrastructure in exchange for access to the country’s mineral wealth which is needed to power the growing Chinese economy. The Chinese involvement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo became evident in 2007 when Sicomines signed the natural resources for infrastructure deal. The $6 billion deal was viewed as win-win cooperation for the two countries as China would get the much needed minerals and Congo would have the opportunity to develop the infrastructure needed to improve lives and strengthen the economy. Many in Congo viewed the deal positively as it would lead to mutual inter-dependency and development. Chinese companies China Railway Group Limited and Sinohydro Corp went ahead to build hospitals and roads in exchange for a 68% stake in the Sicomines cobalt and copper mine.

Although the DRC and China had the best intention, the deal did not achieve its objectives fully. The Chinese wanted to produce at least 200,000 tonnes of copper cathodes per year in the first year and a corresponding amount of processed cobalt. China also wanted to increase the output to 400,000 tonnes of refined copper by the 3^rd year. However, the production in the Sicomines only started in 2015 and managed to produce 44,000 tons of copper cathodes per year. One of the key factors which prevented full production in the mine was the unreliable electricity in the country. Nonetheless, the two countries continued to develop their relationship and today, China in Congo’s largest import partner. At the same time, the DRC is one of the key sources of mineral resources such as coltan and cobalt for China. The DRC is particularly important for China especially as its electric vehicle industry continues to grow and consume mineral resources at exponential rates.

Over the last two decades, the United Nations has also been an active player in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. For example, in 2017, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 2360 aimed at extending sanctions and the arms embargo against the DRC. It also aimed at condemning the exploitation of resources and violence among militias. Moreover, the United Nations has been trying to prosecute people who are accused of war crimes in the country through the International Criminal Court.

Most notably, the United Nations has been involved in the DRC through MONUSCO, its peacekeeping force. Although MONUSCO has been present in the DRC since 1999 and has an annual budget of $1.1 billion, its involvement in the country is viewed as a failure because it has not been able to contain the violence especially in the country’s eastern regions. As such, there are people who want the force to leave the country and be replaced by the army. Although MONUSCO was supposed to ensure that there is peace in the country, it has rarely engaged the rebel forces that terrorize the population in the east. The force has also been involved in several scandals that undermine the trust people have in the  UN and its role in the DRC. Fore example in 2004, sixty three MONUSCO troops were accused of paying children for sex. The other example was a case where the MONUSCO troops were accused of selling weapons to rebel groups in exchange for gold. The UN troops have also been accused of remaining in their bases as rebels ordered the decapitation of citizens. As a result, MONUSCO is viewed as an ineffective and useless force in the country. Nonetheless, the arms embargo that was placed on the DRC for over two decades forced the country to rely on the UN to maintain a sense of security due to a lack of options.

            It is noteworthy that although the DRC has enormous natural wealth, it lacks the technology needed to exploit these resources. This is because the country does not produce its own indigenous technology and has to rely on  imports or foreign direct investment to run its mining sector. All of the equipment used in the mining sector is imported from foreign countries such as China, Japan, South Korea, France, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada among others. As such, the mining industry in the DRC would be in deep trouble if the country ever faced international isolation. Moreover, the failure to develop local industries means that the DRC is one of the most import-reliant nations in the world. The country relies on imports for daily necessities such as petrol, diesel, jet fuel, consumer electronics and other consumer goods. This means that the Democratic Republic is not different from countries such as Nigeria which have enormous natural resources such as oil but have import finished products such as petrol and diesel.

            The Democratic Republic of the Congo is also reliant on foreign expertise and talent to run its natural resources sector. Even though the country has made substantial improvement in its education sector, it has not been able to educate and develop sufficient human resources and personnel to run the mining sector independently. For example, the country does not produce enough talent in the key sectors of knowledge including science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). As a result, the country depends on foreign contractors to run the mining sector. In fact, the DRC even has to rely on foreign talent on simple projects such as road and rail construction mainly because the local contractors are considered to be unreliable companies that often deliver substandard projects. Nonetheless, the government now seems to be keen on developing local knowledge as the demand for infrastructure development has grown over the last decade.

Finally, the DRC often depends on international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to maintain macroeconomic stability. Although these institutions often help the country stabilize its economy, they also impose tough conditions such as austerity, increase of taxes, privatization and reduction of public spending. These measures can be considered to a violation of a nation’s sovereignty as the decision making on key economic issues is outsourced to the international organizations. However, it is important to note that the DRC has done well by managing to maintain low public debt unlike other African countries that are heavily indebted to public and private lenders. For example, in 2022, the public debt in the country was only 14.6% of GDP (gross domestic product). This has made the country resilient to international shocks such as the COVID 19 pandemic. If the DRC was able to end the war in the east and maintain political stability, it would have the potential to develop its natural resources, lift people out of poverty and improve the living standards of its population.