THE PIVOT TO AFRICA 🌍 THREAD
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Heaviest Fighting in Years Breaks Out in Congo as Rivals Seek Control of Minerals
Long-simmering ethnic tensions in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have erupted into the most intense clashes in a decade as warring militias fight for control of the region and its mineral riches.
www.wsj.com
Heaviest Fighting in Years Breaks Out in Congo as Rivals Seek Control of Minerals
Clashes erupt between the Congolese army and Rwanda-backed militias as fighting for control of Congo’s vast mineral riches erupts again
Nicholas BariyoNov. 21, 2022 at 7:35 am ET
Displaced people flee toward the city of Goma, eastern Congo, amid heavy fighting.
In recent days, the M23 rebel group has advanced to within 12 miles of the city of Goma, pushing United Nations-backed Congolese government forces from several surrounding towns. More than two million people are suffering shortages of food and fuel as a result of the fighting.
The M23 group, estimated to have 2,000 men under arms and backed by neighboring Rwanda and Uganda, is seeking greater influence in a country that is home to the world’s largest deposits of tantalum, used in smartphones and personal computers.
The advance raises the prospect that M23 and its foreign allies could dominate a region that also produces tin, gold and coltan, and exacerbate a humanitarian situation in a country that already hosts more displaced people than any other in Africa.
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M23 says it is fighting to defend Congolese Tutsis, Rwanda’s dominant ethnic group, against ethnic Hutu militias. Its rise has helped transform Rwanda, which produces little tantalum, into the world’s second-largest exporter of the rare blue-grey metal, because it controls informal supply chains that funnel the Congolese-mined mineral across the border, researchers and U.N. investigators say.
Congo accuses Rwandan President Paul Kagame, a Tutsi, of using the group to seize control of the region’s minerals. Mr. Kagame says M23 is a Congolese group fighting for legitimate political rights, and has ignored international pleas to halt his support for the rebel group, which is led by commanders who previously served in the Rwandan army.
Uganda was ordered in February by the International Court of Justice to pay Congo $325 million in reparations for its role in the plundering of the country’s resources.
U.N. vehicles are set on fire by crowds angry about the advance of M23 rebels in Goma.Photo: Moses Sawasawa/Associated Press
Kenyan soldiers in Goma as part of a regional military operation targeting rebels in the region.Photo: guerchom ndebo/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Regional diplomats and analysts say the latest fighting was triggered when Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi allowed Uganda to deploy troops to conduct joint operations against Islamic State-affiliated Allied Democratic Forces operating in Congo last year. The move pressured Rwanda, which competes with Uganda over control of Congo’s mineral riches, to intervene, according to the International Crisis Group.
In Goma, food stocks are running low after rebels cut off the main highway to the north, sending prices of staples from beans to fish spiraling. Sporadic protests have erupted, with hundreds of demonstrators attacking military and U.N. installations to protest against the army’s failure to defeat the rebels. Frightened residents fear an imminent attack, locals and activists say.
“We are very scared,” said Pascal Burasa, a schoolteacher who recently fled to Goma from his hometown of Rutshuru, now under rebel control. “This is a direct aggression against a sovereign country, the international community should intervene.”
The battle for Goma, which has already uprooted more than 260,000 people from their homes, could reignite regional rivalries and revive other local insurgents. That would undermine recent efforts by Mr. Tshisekedi to end decades of conflict in the region by mending relations with neighboring states and working closely with a 12,000-strong U.N. force. But in recent months, these hopes have vanished: Dozens of people have been killed since July, while hundreds of protesters have attacked U.N. bases, angered by the perceived inability of peacekeepers to keep civilians safe.
U.N. investigators warned in August that M23 rebels planned to recapture the city to extract political concessions from the Congolese government.
Regional leaders have sought to resolve tensions between Congo and Rwanda, with leaders of the East African Community bloc saying on Nov. 13 that peace talks would start in Kenya before the end of November. Hundreds of additional troops from Kenya arrived in Goma on Nov. 12 as part of regional efforts to bolster government defenses.
Hundreds of volunteers sit on a plane bound for a training center after answering Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi’s call to join the army.Photo: afp contributor#afp/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
“State support of armed groups is unacceptable, and we reiterate our concern about Rwanda’s support to the M23,” Ned Price, spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said last month, adding that Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered that message to Rwandan officials during a visit to the country in August.
After briefly occupying Goma in 2012, the M23 rebels reached a peace deal with the government and were integrated into the Congolese military in 2013.
A year later, Rwanda emerged as a top producer of tin, tungsten and tantalum—minerals used in the aerospace and electronics industry that are extracted primarily by miners digging pits across Congolese hillsides and river banks.
Rwanda, which says the minerals come from Rwandan mines in compliance with regulatory requirements, supplied some 39% of the world’s tantalum from 2015 to 2018, compared with 10% from Congo, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Rwanda’s annual mineral exports earnings more than doubled last year to $732 million, according to Rwandan government data. In Uganda, gold exports have also surged in the past decade, overtaking coffee as the country’s leading export commodity for the first time. The U.N. estimates that more than 90% of the minerals out of Congo are smuggled into Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.
“The M23 are not rebels, they were sent in Congo by Kagame because his objective is to get a hold of Congolese minerals,” Congolese opposition leader Martin Fayulu said in a recent interview with German television station DW. “Uganda doesn’t want to stay behind, it also wants a portion of Congolese resources.”
Security forces patrol Goma.Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Write to Nicholas Bariyo at nicholas.bariyo@wsj.com
Biden aims to narrow trust gap with US-Africa leaders summit
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to play host to dozens of African leaders in Washington this week as the White House looks to narrow a gaping trust gap with Africa — one that has grown wider over years of frustration about America's commitment to the continent.
apnews.com
Biden aims to narrow trust gap with US-Africa leaders summit
FILE - President Joe Biden speaks in the South Court Auditorium on the White House complex in Washington, Dec. 8, 2022. Biden is set to play host to dozens of African leaders in Washington this coming week during the three-day U.S-Africa Leaders Summit that begins Tuesday, Dec. 13. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to play host to dozens of African leaders in Washington this week as the White House looks to narrow a gaping trust gap with Africa — one that has grown wider over years of frustration about America’s commitment to the continent.
In the lead-up to the three-day U.S-Africa Leaders Summit that begins Tuesday, Biden administration officials played down their increasing concern about the clout of China and Russia in Africa, which is home to more than 1.3 billion people. Instead, administration officials tried to put the focus on their efforts to improve cooperation with African leaders.
“This summit is an opportunity to deepen the many partnerships we have on the African continent,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said when asked about the shadow that China and Russia cast on the meetings. “We will focus on our efforts to strengthen these partnerships across a wide range of sectors spanning from businesses to health to peace and security, but our focus will be on Africa next week.”
To that end, White House officials said that “major deliverables and initiatives” — diplomatic speak for big announcements — will be peppered throughout the meetings. The White House previewed one major summit announcement on Friday, saying that Biden would use the gathering to declare his support for adding the African Union as a permanent member of the Group of 20 nations.
The summit will be the biggest international gathering in Washington since before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Local officials are warning residents to brace for road blocks and intensified security as 49 invited heads of states and leaders — and Biden — whiz around the city.
Talks are expected to center on the coronavirus, climate change, the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Africa, trade and more, according to White House officials. Biden is set to deliver remarks at a U.S.-Africa business forum, hold small group meetings with leaders, host a leaders’ dinner at the White House and take part in other sessions with leaders during the gathering.
Biden has spent much of his first two years in office trying to assuage doubters on the international stage about American leadership after four years of Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy. With this summit — a follow-up to the first such gathering held eight years ago by President Barack Obama — Biden has an opportunity to assuage concerns in Africa about whether the U.S. is serious about tending to the relationship.
Biden’s effort to draw African nations closer to the U.S. comes at a complicated moment, as his administration has made plain that it believes that Chinese and Russian activity in Africa is a serious concern to U.S. and African interests.
In its sub-Saharan Africa strategy unveiled in August, the Biden administration warned that China, which has pumped billions into African energy, infrastructure and other projects, sees the region as an arena where Beijing can “challenge the rules-based international order, advance its own narrow commercial and geopolitical interests, undermine transparency and openness.”
The administration also argues that Russia, the preeminent arms dealer in Africa, views the continent as a permissive environment for Kremlin-connected oligarchs and private military companies to focus on fomenting instability for their own strategic and financial benefit.
Still, administration officials are emphasizing that concerns about China and Russia will not be central to the talks.
“The United States prioritizes our relationship with Africa for the sake of our mutual interests and our partnership in dealing with global challenges,” Molly Phee, assistant secretary of state for African affairs, told reporters before the summit. “We are very conscious, again, of the Cold War history, we’re conscious, again, of the deleterious impact of colonialism on Africa, and we studiously seek to avoid repeating some of the mistakes of those earlier eras.”
The administration has been disappointed that much of the continent has declined to follow the U.S. in condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but Biden is not expected to dwell on differences publicly.
The president is expected to participate with leaders in a session on promoting food security and food systems resilience. Africa has been disproportionately impacted by the global rise in food prices that has been caused in part by the drop in shipments from major grain exporter Ukraine.
“One of the unique aspects of this summit is the collateral damage that the Russian war has inflicted on Africa in terms of food supply and the diversion of development assistance to Ukraine. The opportunity costs of the invasion have been very high in Africa,” said John Stremlau, a visiting professor of international relations at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
Four countries that were suspended from the African Union — Guinea, Sudan, Mali and Burkina Faso— were not invited to the summit because coups in those nations led to unconstitutional changes in power. The White House also did not invite the East African nation of Eritrea; Washington does not have full diplomatic relations with the country.
Biden’s decision to invite several leaders to the summit who have questionable records on human rights and democracy is looming large ahead of the gathering.
Equatorial Guinea was invited despite the State Department stating that it held “serious doubts” about last month’s election in the tiny Central African nation. Opposition parties “made credible allegations of significant election-related irregularities, including documented instances of fraud, intimidation, and coercion,” according to the department. Election officials reported that President Teodoro Obiang’s ruling party won nearly 95% of the vote.
Zimbabwe, which has faced years of U.S. and Western sanctions over poor governance, human rights abuses and widespread corruption, also was invited.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who seized power from longtime ruler Robert Mugabe in 2017, has sought to cast himself as a reformer, but local and international human rights campaigners accuse him of repression that is just as bad or even worse than Mugabe’s.
Although Mnangagwa enjoys cozy relations with China and Russia, as did Mugabe, he has also sought to make friends with the U.S. and other Western countries in an effort to bolster his legitimacy.
In a national address that he delivered in November in a new Chinese-gifted multimillion-dollar parliament building, Mnangagwa held out the invitation to the U.S.-Africa summit as a sign of his administration’s success. He said the southern African country welcomed the invitation, but he also called for the “unconditional” removal of sanctions that he blames for Zimbabwe’s debilitating economic woes.
“Emphasis remains on dialogue,” Mnangagwa said.
Ethiopia received an invitation even though Biden late last last year announced he was cutting out the country from a U.S. trade program, known as the African Growth and Opportunity Act, over Ethiopia’s failure to end a war in the Tigray region that led to “gross violations” of human rights. A peace deal was signed last month, but implementation faces major challenges such as the continued presence of troops from neighboring Eritrea.
Analysts say that African leaders will be looking for Biden to make some major commitments during the summit, including announcing his first presidential visit to sub-Saharan Africa, efforts to bolster the continent’s economy through private sector investment and trade and more.
Perhaps most importantly, it could be an opportunity for Biden to demonstrate that Africa is more than a battleground in its economic and military competition with Beijing and Moscow.
“I do strongly believe that the United States is still seen as a superpower from the African perspective, but most African leaders do not want to align with its promotion of democracy,” said Abraham Kuol Nyuon, a political analyst and associate professor of political science at the University of Juba in South Sudan. “They need the support of America but not the system of America.”
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Mutsaka reported from Harare, Zimbabwe, and Magome from Johannesburg. Associated Press writers Cara Anna in Nairobi, Kenya, and Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
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www.reuters.com