home All News open_in_new Full Article

The Guardian view on Donald Trump’s Congo deal: mineral riches for protection | Editorial

Faced with regional chaos and shrinking options, Kinshasa seeks terms of trade that echo the old extractive order in modern disguise“The vilest scramble for loot that has ever disfigured the history of human conscience” is how Joseph Conrad described colonial-era concessions granted to private companies for Congo’s natural resources in Heart of Darkness. Under Donald Trump, that scramble may be back. If news reports are right, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is offering the US a blunt deal: minerals for military help – a slice of sovereignty traded for a shot at stability.The concern is this isn’t a return, it’s a sequel. For three decades, Washington supported Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, a cold war ally and brutal dictator who looted the Congo until his 1997 fall. That history of power politics still casts a long shadow. The Trump administration openly favours muscle over diplomacy. Fadhel Kaboub, an associate professor of economics at Denison University, notes that Biden-era ...


today 41 h. ago attach_file Politics

attach_file Economics
attach_file Politics
attach_file Politics
attach_file Politics
attach_file Politics
attach_file Politics
attach_file Events
attach_file Politics
attach_file Economics
attach_file Economics
attach_file Politics
attach_file Economics
attach_file Politics
attach_file Events
attach_file Politics
attach_file Politics
attach_file Politics
attach_file Politics
attach_file Politics
attach_file Politics


ID: 3780257003
Add Watch Country

arrow_drop_down