…

your ad here

LONDON/DAKAR — Among the dozens of Wagner mercenaries presumed dead after a lethal battle with Tuareg rebels during a desert sandstorm in Mali in July were Russian war veterans who survived tours in Ukraine, Libya and Syria, according to interviews with relatives and a review of social media data.

The loss of such experienced fighters exposes dangers faced by Russian mercenary forces working for military juntas, which are struggling to contain separatists and powerful offshoots of Islamic State and Al Qaeda across the arid Sahel region in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

The Mali defeat raises doubts over whether Moscow, which has admitted funding Wagner and has absorbed many of its fighters into a defense ministry force, will do better than Western and U.N. troops recently expelled by the juntas, six officials and experts who work in the region said.

By cross-referencing public information with online posts from relatives and fighters, speaking to seven relatives and using facial recognition software to analyze battlefield footage verified by Reuters, the news agency was able to identify 23 fighters missing in action and two others taken into Tuareg captivity after the ambush near Tinzaouaten, a town on the Algerian border.

Several of the men had survived the siege of Bakhmut in Ukraine, which Wagner’s late founder Yevgeny Prigozhin called a “meat grinder.” Others had served in Libya, Syria and elsewhere. Some were former Russian soldiers, at least one of whom had retired after a full-length army career.

Grisly footage of dead fighters has now circulated online, and some of relatives told Reuters the bodies of their husbands and sons had been abandoned in the desert. Reuters could not confirm how many of the men it identified were dead.

Margarita Goncharova said her son, Vadim Evsiukov, 31, was first recruited in prison where he was serving a drug-related sentence in 2022. He rose through the ranks in Ukraine to lead a platoon of 500 men, she said. After coming home, he worked as a tailor but struggled with survivor’s guilt and secretly traveled to Africa in April to join his former commander, she said.

“He wanted to fly to Africa many times. I discouraged him as much as I could,” Goncharova said in an interview with Reuters. “I told him ‘fate has given you a once-in-a-million chance. You can start your life again; you’ve won such a crazy lottery’.”

The Russian Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Wagner did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

After Prigozhin died in August last year, Wagner employees were invited to join a newly created group called the Africa Corps, under the defense ministry, “to fight for justice and the interests of Russia,” according to the Africa Corps channel on social-media platform Telegram.

On the channel, Africa Corps says about half its personnel are former Wagner employees who it allows to use Wagner insignia. Wagner’s social media channels remain active.

The Russian government has not publicly commented on the Tinzaouaten battle.

Mali’s armed forces-led government said the defeat had no impact on its goals. The Malian Armed Forces “are committed to restoring the authority of the state throughout the country,” army spokesman Colonel Major Souleymane Dembele told Reuters.

Wagner has acknowledged heavy losses in the Mali ambush but gave no figure. The Malian army, which fought alongside the Russians, also did not give a toll. Tuareg rebels, who are fighting for an independent homeland, said they had killed 84 Russians and 47 Malians.

Reuters could not independently establish how many were killed in battle. One video, out of more than 20 sent to Reuters by a Tuareg rebel spokesman, showed at least 47 bodies, mostly white men, in military-style uniforms lying in the desert. Reuters verified the location and date of the video.

Mikhail Zvinchuk, a prominent blogger close to the Russian defense ministry, said on social media platform RuTube in August that the defeat showed Wagner fighters who arrived from Ukraine had underestimated the rebels and the Al Qaeda fighters.

Missing in action

Wagner-linked Telegram accounts named two of the dead as Nikita Fedyakin, the administrator of The Grey Zone, a popular Wagner-focused Telegram channel with over half a million subscribers, and Sergei Shevchenko, who the accounts described as the unit commander. Reuters could not verify the identity of Shevchenko.

Reuters separately identified 23 Wagner operators missing in Mali via relatives who posted in an official Wagner Telegram chat group, checking the names against social media accounts, publicly available data and facial recognition software. All the relatives received calls from Wagner recruiters on Aug. 6 to notify them their men were missing in action, they said in the chat group.

Lyubov Bazhenova told Reuters she had no idea her son Vladimir Akimov, 25, who had briefly served in Russia’s elite airborne forces as a conscript, had signed up. She was angry with Wagner for sharing no further information about his fate or the whereabouts of his body. She said letters to the prosecutor’s office, defense ministry and foreign ministry had gone unanswered.

Facial-recognition software was used to identify another two men captured by Tuareg fighters, based on photographs and videos of the ambush site published by Tuareg sources. The Tuareg rebels posted videos and photos of the two captives on social media. Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, a spokesman for the rebel alliance, confirmed the men were in rebel captivity as of late August.

One of the missing fighters, Alexei Kuzekmaev, 47, had no military experience, his wife Lyudmila Kuzekmaeva told Reuters.

“Neither my hysterics, nor tears, nor persuasion – nothing helped. He just confronted me a month before he left home. He said ‘I bought a ticket and will be leaving.'”

Among the most experienced men was Alexander Lazarev, 48, a Russian army veteran who served in wars against Chechen separatists in the 1990s and 2000s, according to his wife’s posts in the Wagner channel.

She declined to comment. Lazarev appears in many photos on the Russian Facebook equivalent VKontakte wearing military uniform, with symbols linked to several army subdivisions.

Parastatal mercenary force

Democratic governments in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger were overthrown since 2020 in a series of coups driven by anger with corrupt leaders and a near decade of failed Western efforts to fight insurgencies that have killed thousands and displaced millions.

The military juntas have kicked out French and U.S. troops and U.N. peacekeepers.

In Africa, Wagner emerged in Sudan in 2017 as the deniable face of Russian operations. Its enterprises soon ranged from protecting African coup leaders to gold mining and fighting jihadists. Wagner is also active in Central African Republic. It first appeared in Mali in late 2021.

Wagner’s fortunes rose and fell last year. In May, the group led Russia to its first significant Ukrainian battlefield victory in almost a year with the capture of Bakhmut. But after his criticism of Russian military leaders and his effort to lead a rebellion weeks after the Bakhmut victory, Prigozhin died in a fiery plane crash in August. The Kremlin has rejected as an “absolute lie” U.S. officials’ claim that Putin had Prigozhin killed.

Eric Whitaker, the top U.S. envoy to Burkina Faso until retiring in June, who previously served in Niger, Mali and Chad, said the Putin administration has achieved complete control over the Wagner brand in the post-Prigozhin era.

“Africa Corps earns (the Russian government) hard-currency payments from host governments for its services and also gains a significant sources of revenue from gold derived from its activities in the Sahel,” he said.

Russian mercenary activity soared in Mali after Africa Corps was formed, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), a U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group. Based on media reports and social media documenting, the data shows violent events linked to Russian mercenaries rose 81% and reported civilian fatalities rose 65% over the past year, compared to the year before Prigozhin’s death.

Wagner does not publish recruitment figures. Jędrzej Czerep, an analyst at Warsaw-based think tank Polish Institute of International Affairs, estimated that around 6,000 Russian mercenaries serve in Africa, while three diplomatic sources said about 1,500-2,000 were in Mali.

“When Africa Corps started to promote and recruit, they were flooded with applications,” said Czerep.

“Being sent to one of the African missions was seen as far safer than Ukraine,” he said.

Tuareg spokesman Ramadane said the rebel alliance was preparing for more clashes.

Further losses could eventually drive Russia out, said Tibor Nagy, the top U.S. envoy to Africa in 2019, when Wagner withdrew from northern Mozambique months after around a dozen of its men were killed during a conflict with an Islamic State affiliate.

“They were out of there very quickly,” said Nagy.

Wagner has not publicly commented on its plans in Mali.

 
…

your ad here

Mekelle/Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — The leader of Tigray People’s Liberation Front Debretsion Gebremichael has reported previously undisclosed talks between his region and the leaders of Eritrea.

Speaking at a press conference in the regional capital Mekelle, Ethiopia, on Tuesday, Debretsion said the first round of talks took place about six months ago in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

He told reporters that Getachew Reda, the president of the Tigray Interim Regional Administration, represented the TPLF at the talks in Dubai.

Without indicating venue and date, Debretsion also said there have been subsequent meetings with the Eritrean leaders after the initial meeting in Dubai.

“This was decided by the TPLF Executive Committee,” he said. “Accordingly, President Getachew Reda has engaged with Eritrea’s leaders. This is something that I know and my party’s Executive Committee knows.”

He said the talks, which were aimed at creating peace between the two sides, had a positive result.

“The abduction of citizens, looting and other activities by the Eritrean forces has improved and eased as a result,” he said.

He said the TPLF party’s intention is to “make peace with all our neighbors, including the Fano forces and the Eritrean government.”

“Based on this principle, Getachew met with the Eritrean leaders, which is known by the honorable prime minister and my part. But this is for a good cause and for peace,” he said.

Debretsion indicated that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been encouraging them to engage in the talks. He adds that Getachew has also briefed the Ethiopian leader about the talks.

There has been no immediate reaction from Ethiopia prime minister’s office, Eritrea and from IRA leader Getachew.

VOA’s Horn of Africa Service has reached out to the Ethiopia prime minister’s office and government communication service but has not received a response. Also, repeated attempts to get reaction from the Eritrea’s ministry of information were not successful.

The governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea were allies during a deadly two-year war in Tigray that killed thousands. Human rights organizations and the United States have accused Eritrean and Ethiopian forces of committing war crimes during the war in Tigray, a charge the two governments denied.

In November 2022, the Ethiopian government and TPLF signed the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement in Pretoria, South Africa, committing to a permanent ending of fighting.

Tigray regional officials allege that Eritrean troops remain in parts of their region despite the Pretoria agreement’s call for the withdrawal of foreign forces. The agreement called for the withdrawal of all foreign forces and non-Ethiopian National Defense Forces, referring to the Eritrean forces and Ethiopian militias allied with the Ethiopian government.

During his visit to Ethiopia, Hammer will review the implementation of the Pretoria Cessation of Hostilities Agreement on northern Ethiopia with the signatories, the State Department said in a statement. 

 

“The United States remains committed to supporting the Ethiopian government and the Tigray Interim Regional Administration to achieve lasting peace, including through effective disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration for ex-combatants; an orderly and peaceful return of internally displaced persons; and advancing transitional justice and accountability,” the statement read.

Hammer will also discuss with Ethiopian officials their efforts to advance dialogue to end violence in the Amhara and Oromia regions, it added.
…

your ad here

Harare, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe’s government has introduced hefty fines of up to $5,000 for poor service in the country’s telecommunications industry.

In a statement Tuesday, Zimbabwe’s ICT Minister Tatenda Mavetera said the government will levy fines of between $200 and $5,000 per infringement for telecommunications companies and internet providers who fail to give reliable service.

Willard Shoko, an independent high-speed internet consultant, said the new fines could result in a solid telecom industry that can compete in the entire southern African region.

“The motive behind that is to improve internet for the end user. But I think they should also consider improving the infrastructure sharing and also collaboration to improve internet, not only for the region but also for Zimbabwe, because this is the foundation of the digital economy,” Shoko said. “I think they should also think about how the internet can be improved and the partnership that can help improve the internet.”

Fungai Mandiveyi, media and corporate affairs executive at Econet Wireless, Zimbabwe’s biggest telecommunications company, said the new regulations will be easier to comply with than those that existed before.

“The new provisions introduce a new model of penalties, unlike the blanket penalty that existed in the previous statutory instrument,” Mandiveyi said. “The new penalties are now linked to specific quality of service breaches, that have also been clearly spelled out. There is now more clarity in what constitutes a service breach, and what penalty goes with a specific breach of the quality of service.”

However, Christopher Musodza, an independent digital policy consultant, said the pressure to maintain internet service during Zimbabwe’s frequent power outages may present challenges for telecom companies.

“For the telecoms provider, it’s going to be tough,” he said. “The economy is not performing as anyone would want. We have got issues to do with long hours of load shedding, so service providers have to power their base stations for long hours to ensure that they meet the key performance indicators. So, imagine running generators for most of the day to ensure that you avoid a fine. (I’m) not sure what will cost more; trying to keep up with these economic factors or just paying the fine.”

Zimbabweans have long complained about poor and expensive telecommunication service. Shoko said that is the reason they are welcoming the government’s decision this month to approve Starlink’s license to operate in Zimbabwe.

The U.S.-based satellite company, owned by Elon Musk, has established a presence in several other African countries, including Botswana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Zambia.

“They can now easily get internet anywhere in Zimbabwe at an affordable price, thereby bridging the digital divide. That’s one major thing for the end user,” Shoko said of Starlink’s presence.

“For the local ISPs [internet service providers], there is massive opportunity that Zimbabwe can take advantage of — investment in ground infrastructure,” he added. “Currently in Africa, Nigeria has only two ground stations that are servicing the whole of Africa. If the Zimbabwe government and local ISPs can work together with Starlink to provide ground stations in Zimbabwe, this will allow local ISPs to provide internet to Starlink, and provide better latencies in the region. So this will improve Starlink internet for local Zimbabweans, as well as the region.”
…

your ad here

Eldoret, Kenya — The man accused of dousing in gasoline and setting afire Olympic runner Rebecca Cheptegei has died from burns sustained during the fatal attack on the Ugandan athlete, a hospital official said on Tuesday.

Cheptegei, 33, who competed in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, suffered burns to more than 75% of her body in the Sept. 1 attack and died four days later.

Her former boyfriend, Dickson Ndiema Marangach, died at 1530 GMT on Monday, said Philip Kirwa, chief executive officer of the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret in western Kenya where Marangach was being treated and where Cheptegei also died.

“He developed respiratory failure as a result of the severe airway burns and sepsis that led to his eventual death,” Kirwa said in a statement.

Kirwa said Marangach had suffered over 41% burns following his assault on Cheptegei, which local media reported to have happened after she returned home from church with her children.

Cheptegei, who finished 44th in Paris, is the third elite sportswoman to be killed in Kenya since October 2021. Her death has put the spotlight on domestic violence in the East African country, particularly within its running community.

“This guy is dead because he killed my daughter. He has died because of his actions,” Cheptegei’s father, Joseph Cheptegei, told Reuters.

Rights groups say female athletes in Kenya, where many international runners train in the high-altitude highlands, are at a high risk of exploitation and violence at the hands of men drawn to their prize money, which far exceeds local incomes.

“Justice really would have been for him to sit in jail and think about what he had done. This is not positive news whatsoever,” said Viola Cheptoo, co-founder of Tirop’s Angels, a support group for survivors of domestic violence in Kenya’s athletic community.

“The shock of Rebecca’s death is still fresh,” Cheptoo told Reuters.

Cheptoo co-founded Tirop’s Angels in memory of Agnes Tirop, a rising star in Kenya’s highly competitive athletics scene, who was found dead in her home in the town of Iten in October 2021, with multiple stab wounds to the neck.

Ibrahim Rotich, Tirop’s husband, was charged with her murder and has pleaded not guilty. The case is ongoing.

Nearly 34% of Kenyan girls and women aged 15-49 years have suffered physical violence, according to government data from 2022, with married women at particular risk. The 2022 survey found that 41% of married women had faced violence.

Globally, a woman is killed by someone in her own family every 11 minutes, according to a 2023 U.N. Women study.

“I don’t wish bad things on anyone, but of course I would have loved for him to face the law as an example for others so that these attacks on women can stop,” Beatrice Ayikoru, secretary-general of the Uganda Olympic Committee, told Reuters.
…

your ad here

Nairobi, Kenya — The United Nations Security Council is expected to vote Wednesday on whether to renew existing sanctions that prevent the transfer of military equipment to Sudan’s western Darfur region. The pending vote comes as Human Rights Watch calls on the council to expand an existing arms embargo, currently on the restive region, to the rest of the country.

The western Darfur region has been the epicenter of Sudan’s current civil war, which pits the Sudanese armed forces, or SAF, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, and other militias against each other. U.N. agencies and rights groups say the parties involved have committed war crimes and other human rights violations during the conflict, which has lasted nearly 18 months.

Ahead of Wednesday’s vote, Human Rights Watch is urging the council to consider imposing an arms ban on the entire country to stop the ongoing rights violations and the suffering of the people. The Sudanese government opposes expansion of the embargo.

Human Rights Watch investigators found that some of the weapons being used in the conflict were acquired after the civil war broke out in April of last year.

Jean-Baptiste Gallopin is a senior researcher in Human Rights Watch’s crisis, conflict, and arms division.

“We based our research on an analysis of photos and videos posted on social media and primarily taken by the fighters themselves, showing them in possession and using equipment such as attack drones, drone jammers, anti-tank guided missiles, as well as truck-mounted multiple rocket launchers systems and mortar munitions,” said Gallopin.

The rights group’s report shows some of the mortars fired were manufactured in China last year. Companies in Iran, Russia, Serbia, and the United Arab Emirates have also produced some of the weapons used, according to the organization.

In 2004, a year after the start of another Darfur conflict between ethnic militias and government-backed militias known as the Janjaweed, the U.N. imposed the arms embargo on Darfur. The embargo originally applied to non-governmental entities and was later extended to all parties in the conflict, including the Sudanese government.

Ahmed Hashi is a Horn of Africa political and security commentator. He said the regional and international community is doing little to end the conflict, and said that in fact, RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedi, is receiving strong foreign support.

“I think the United Arab Emirates and other proxy states are arming Mr. Hamedi. I think that the rebellion inside Sudan is foreign-led. I think that the people who caused the Janjaweed and caused international human rights, international crime are fighting in Sudan. I’m afraid that terrorism will rear its ugly head. It is the tragic human rights issue of the 21st century. And we are all, including me, ashamed as Africans that we have not done anything,” he said.

The UAE has denied arming the RSF. 

 

Gallopin said imposing an arms ban in one region would not solve the conflict. He said a ban is needed nationwide.

“We believe that the existing embargo is not sufficient, that there needs to be a wholesale embargo on the sale of armed and military equipment to the whole of Sudan, because we documented, we and others documented very serious abuses carried out by the warring parties since last year, including widespread war crimes, crimes against humanity. We know we published a report on Darfur showing that ethnic cleansing was committed. And so we think it’s urgent for the Security Council to broaden that arms embargo,” he said.

The group also is calling on the Security Council to condemn governments that are violating the existing arms embargo on Darfur and take urgent measures to sanction individuals and entities that are also doing so.
…

your ad here

MAIDUGURI — At least 48 people were killed Sunday in a fuel tanker truck explosion following a collision with another vehicle in Niger state in north-central Nigeria, the state’s disaster management agency said.

The State Emergency Management Agency in north-central Niger state said the fuel truck collided with a truck carrying travelers and cattle. Several other vehicles were also caught up in the accident, it said.

Local media reported that two of the other vehicles — a crane truck and a pickup van —were involved in the accident and caught in the fire.

The emergency management agency’s spokesperson Hussaini Ibrahim put the death toll at 48 and officials were still trying to clear the scene of the incident.

Nigeria’s state-owned firm NNPC Ltd last week hiked the price of gasoline by at least 39%, the second major increase in more than a year but shortages have continued, forcing motorists to queue for hours in the country’s major cities and towns. 
…

your ad here

MIP Africa — an event that matches African film and TV creatives to the people and countries that produce their work, wrapped up last week [Sept. 4] with several signed deals. Industry members and legislators from film meccas worldwide attended the event, part of the larger Fame Week Africa conference for creative professionals. Reporter Vicky Stark has the story from Cape Town, South Africa.
…

your ad here

IMI N’TALA, Morocco — The rescue crews and bystanders are long gone but the remnants of homes still sit in piles off to the side of the jagged roads.

A year after nearly 3,000 people died when a record earthquake shook communities throughout Morocco’s High Atlas, it still looks like a bomb just went off in villages like Imi N’tala, where dozens of residents died after a chunk of mountainside cracked off and flattened the majority of buildings.

Broken bricks, bent rods of rebar and pieces of kitchen floors remain but have been swept into neater piles alongside plastic tents where the displaced now live. Some await funds to reconstruct their homes. Others await approval of their blueprints.

The region shaken by the earthquake is full of impoverished agricultural villages like Imi N’tala, accessible only via bumpy, unmaintained roads. Associated Press reporters revisited half a dozen of them last week ahead of the first anniversary.

In some places, residents who say they’re awaiting governmental action have begun reconstructing buildings on an ad hoc basis. Elsewhere, people tired of the stuffiness of plastic tents have moved back into their cracked homes or decamped to larger cities, abandoning their old lives.

Streets have been neatly swept in towns like Amizmiz and Moulay Brahim, although cracked buildings and piles of rubble remain, much as they were in the days after the quake.

The rhythms of normal life have somewhat resumed in some of the province’s larger towns, where rebuilding efforts on roads, homes, schools and businesses are underway and some residents have been provided metal container homes. But many of those displaced from the more than 55,000 homes destroyed by the temblor remain vulnerable to summer’s heat and winter’s cold, living in plastic tents, impatient to return.

Mohamed Soumer, a 69-year-old retiree who lost his son in last year’s earthquake, is angry because local authorities have forbidden him from rebuilding his home on the same steep mountainside due to safety concerns. He now spends his days with his wife in a plastic tent near his now-rubbled home and fears moving elsewhere and restarting his life in a larger, more expensive area.

“Residents want to stay here because they have land where they grow vegetables to make a living,” he said. “If they go somewhere else and abandon this place, they will not be able to live there.”

The government early on promised households monthly stipends in the aftermath of the earthquake and additional funds for seismically safe reconstruction. It said last week that both had been provided to the majority of eligible families and households.

“Specific solutions are being deployed on the ground for difficult cases,” Morocco’s Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.

But on the ground, its disbursal has been uneven, residents say, with many still waiting for funds or reconstruction to commence.

Anger has mounted against local authorities in towns like Amizmiz and villages like Talat N’Yaqoub, where residents have protested against their living conditions. They have criticized the slow pace of reconstruction and demanded more investment in social services and infrastructure, which has long gone neglected in contrast with Morocco’s urban centers and coastline.

Officials have said rebuilding will cost 120 billion dirhams ($12 billion) and take about five years. The government has rebuilt some stretches of rural roads, health centers and schools but last week the commission tasked with reconstruction acknowledged the need to speed up some home rebuilding.
…

your ad here

NAIROBI, Kenya — The number of children who died in a fire in a school dormitory in central Kenya has risen to 21, the government spokesperson said Saturday. 

Officials began removing the bodies of the children as they tried to account for the dozens of boys still missing. 

Journalists were moved to wait outside the Hillside Endarasha Primary School compound as a team that included the government pathologist and morticians from the Nyeri provincial hospital set up tables outside the dormitory Saturday. 

The Thursday night fire razed a dormitory that was housing 156 boys ages 10 to 14. More than 100 boys have been accounted for and the government is urging parents and people living near the privately owned school to help account for all the boys. 

Government spokesperson Isaac Mwaura called for patience from members of the public as government agencies comb through the scene to ascertain the numbers of those who died and what caused the fire. Police are still investigating. 

Mwaura said that some of the children were burned beyond recognition and agencies would take longer to identify the victims. 

“These figures are still preliminary because the process is ongoing. … It’s a DNA process that will take a number of days,” he said. 

Kenya’s president, William Ruto, declared three days of mourning Friday. Anxious parents, who had been waiting all day for news about their children, were allowed to see Friday evening what remained of the dormitory. Some parents broke down as they left the scene. 

The government has urged school administrators to enforce boarding guidelines that require dormitories to be spacious, with three doors and no grills on the windows for easy escape in case of fire. 

School fires are common in Kenyan boarding schools, often caused by arson fueled by drug abuse and overcrowding, according to a recent education ministry report. Many students board because parents believe it gives them more time to study without long commutes. 

Some fires have been started by students during protests over the workload or living conditions. In 2017, 10 high school students died in a school fire in Nairobi started by a student. 

Kenya’s deadliest school fire in recent history was in 2001, when 67 students died in a dormitory fire in Machakos county. 
…

your ad here

Kinshasa, Congo —  

Officials from the Democratic Republic of Congo will be heading home from the two-day Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing with limited success in their bid to expand economic relations beyond the mineral exports that have dominated trade, analysts say.

“The Chinese will continue to want to consolidate their position in Congo, including on minerals,” says Jean-Pierre Okenda, a Congolese consultant on mining issues.

Although the DRC has a trade surplus with China, while most African countries have large deficits, almost all of it is from minerals China is buying to feed its manufacturers that are hungry for raw materials.

The central African nation is the world’s largest producer of copper and cobalt, a metal used in electronics and a key material for batteries used in electric vehicles.  The DRC has about 70% of the planet’s cobalt reserves.

Expanding trade, investment?

China’s customs authority shows trade flows to the DRC dropped 13% last year to $18.75 billion compared to 2022, the vast majority of it due to China’s decreased imports from the DRC, which dropped by nearly 14% to $14.27 billion.

While the drop was largely due to fluctuating prices, it underscored how deeply the DRC, one of the poorest countries in the world, relies on China.  

China is by far its largest single trading partner, representing nearly half of its merchandise exports and more than a quarter of its imports, according to 2022 data from the World Trade Organization.

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi was the first African leader to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of the conference. According to a statement from his office, Tshisekedi made it clear he wants to see bilateral trade expanded to other sectors “such as agriculture, renewable energy and especially industrialization through the local processing of the DRC’s mineral wealth.” 

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said ahead of the forum that Xi declared his nation is ready to “deepen cooperation in agriculture, mineral products processing, vocational training and other fields.”

Many in the Congolese leadership were hoping to come away from the conference with large pledges of Chinese investment in the country.

Julien Paluku, the DRC’s trade minister, on Thursday published a plea for Kinshasa to be given a large chunk of the $50 billion that Xi promised at the conference to invest in Africa over the next three years.

“We focused our arguments on DRC’s pivotal role in the Belt and Road Initiative, highlighting its strategic location as a connectivity point from North to South and East to West across the African continent,” he wrote on X.

Business climate

Christian-Geraud Neema, a Congolese researcher on China-Africa relations and the Francophone Africa Editor of the China Global South Project, says complaints about the investment climate in the DRC are an issue.

“There is a sort of reluctance to increase projects,” he says, referring to Chinese investments in Congo. “China will make promises, but not very committed promises.”

The DRC is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, ranking 162 out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index.

Chinese businesses have also come under increasing pressure under Tshisekedi’s administration, with the government working to renegotiate long-standing deals with Chinese mining firms.

In January, the Congolese government concluded talks on renegotiating a deal with the Chinese consortium running Sicomines, a copper-cobalt mine in Congo’s southeast. That renegotiation saw the investors behind the consortium agree to spend a massive $7 billion on developing infrastructure, such as badly needed roads and bridges, in the DRC.

Another Chinese company, CMOC, which runs the largest copper-cobalt mine in the world, situated in the DRC, agreed to pay $2 billion to the Congolese state last year after a commercial dispute.

Although many analysts believe those mining deals are still favorable to China, the uncertain business environment and the costs associated with rampant corruption have caused unease, say analysts.

“The operating conditions in Congo, everyone knows what they’re like,” says Okenda, explaining that Chinese firms were among the few willing to brave Congo’s tough business environment.

Defense cooperation

Defense is another area where some in the Congolese administration had been hoping for more cooperation in light of the country’s struggle to end the brutal conflict in eastern DRC.

Tshisekedi’s office said he discussed security concerns with Xi and that he “praised China’s influence on the lifting of the [U.N.] arms embargo on the DRC while it is unjustly attacked by Rwanda and M23 terrorists.”

The M23, a Rwandan-backed rebel group, has captured swathes of territory in the region since launching a rebellion in late 2021, and displaced more than 1 million people from their homes.

The DRC’s army, which critics say is weak and plagued with corruption, has struggled to fight back, losing battles and territory. But the DRC army did purchase nine high-tech Chinese CH-4 Rainbow attack drones, which it has used effectively in battle despite some being shot down.

Jean-Pierre Bemba, who was the DRC’s defense minister before moving to the transport portfolio in April, said in Beijing this week that he hoped China and the DRC could go beyond their traditional areas of cooperation and work more closely on defense.

Analysts are skeptical the defense relationship will go much further. Okenda, the mining consultant, said “China’s interest isn’t in defense,” and that Beijing’s overriding concern was natural resources.

Neema, the researcher, said the prospect of a minerals-for-arms deal with Chinese firms had been a vague idea for years, but that Congolese leaders had never pursued it for fear of angering the United States, another important diplomatic partner.

He said that closer defense cooperation remained unlikely, unless the situation in the eastern DRC deteriorates further.

“Expediting military factors could push the Congolese government to make a deal,” he said.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in their statement on Xi’s meeting with Tshisekedi indicated he made no reference to defense cooperation and gave only a boiler plate comment about working together for peace.  
…

your ad here

Russian mercenaries hired to provide security in Burkina Faso began leaving the country in late August — they say to resist Ukraine’s recent incursion into Russia. Data show the mercenaries have had little impact in the Sahel’s war against Islamic terrorist groups. As Henry Wilkins reports, Burkina Faso saw one of the deadliest militant attacks in recent years the same week the Russians left.
…

your ad here