Written by John Lasker
Mining in DRC
A Canadian mining company is prepared to bring hundreds of millions of dollars in gold out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, one of Africa’s most embattled and poorest countries. One expert says that to extract gold, the company will have to cut a deal with a violent African militia.
In an attempt to derail fresh violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN is calling on governments and other agencies to raise nearly $40 million in emergency funding for extra security. The UN says escalated fighting between the notorious “FDLR” or Forces Democatiques de Liberation du Rwanda militia and the DRC military is forcing thousands of Congolese to flee their homes.
“There are widespread reports…of atrocities including accusations of murder, rape and torture, on the part of the FDLR rebels,” said UN spokesperson Ron Redmond to the newswire Agence France-Press in late July. “Fleeing populations also report arbitrary arrests, kidnappings, extortion and forced taxation by the FDLR and various armed groups backing the Rwandan Hutu rebels.”
The DRC government has said the incidents are related to its latest military offensive to root out the FDLR.
The region was believed to be under a relative peace since earlier this year after General Laurent Nkunda — the infamous leader of another violent militia group — was finally apprehended. But as is often the case in eastern DRC, where a resource war involving several nations and many militias has been waged on-and-off for the last ten years, true peace never lasts long.
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