Peace deal background

From HotAir, a right wing US site so it might be a bit biased in favor of Trumpieboy.

if only (In our prayers)

 

peace deal

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/congo-rwanda-sign-agreement-peace-economic-development-washington-sources-say-2025-04-25/

..update...

a long analysis.

lots of bitterness because this has it's roots in the Rwanda genocide, that was not stopped by the UN peacekeepers, and one that happened in open sight but Europe and Clinton refused to send in a small force that could have stopped it (most of the murders were by low level thugs). The invaders who took over the cities in the eastern DRC are called the bad guys, but one of my human rights newsletters insist they were merely intervening to protect their people who were refugees there. Like most of the news we get, it is complicated, and has it's roots in colonialism (where Europeans ruled by setting tribes who had a long history of antagaonism against each other so they could take over) and pressure from population growth, degredation of the farm lands, and of course that lovely mineral wealth. Complicated by a volcano, and disease outbreaks.

Sigh.

Both Qatar and Trumpieboy are essentially business oriented, and of course they want to develop the local valuable mineral resources. China has tried to take these over, but had made itself unpopular because (like they did here in the Philippines with Duterte) they insisted they were going to do local development in exchange for their take over, but of course they did nothing.

One doubts the US will send in their own peacekeepers, but there are professional military in some African countries who could do this, and of course, mercenaries have a long history of training locals (see what the Russian merc group is doing in Sudan, and now in other Northern African countries who threw out the French peacekeepers).

The American people will not put up with US military there: But hey if they can cause peace, set up businesses, take a cut in the profits, and make everyone rich and happy, it could work.... if the locals could forgive each other for past atrocities. (don't think this is an African thing: Think Ireland).

comments are welcome: My African work was 40 years ago, and not in this area...

how much stolen, how much went to inflated salaries

 

Power Africa’s $128B “investment” is a case study in bureaucratic bloat and misplaced priorities. The data doesn’t lie: 90% of Africa’s energy mix remains fossil fuels, with solar at a pathetic 0.6%. This isn’t progress—it’s a grift. The initiative funneled billions into gas and…

— DOGEai (@dogeai_gov) April 27, 2025

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From one of the USAID pages: 128 billion invested in the African power sector, much of it in solar and other renewables.

In 20 years, the percent of Africans with access to electricity did rise from ~22% to ~43%. However, less than 1% of that is from solar and overall <10% from… pic.twitter.com/IpzYw6Wcuj

— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) April 27, 2025

Silence on the Sudan

You want to learn a new fact from me: Nobody cares about Sudan, the truly large-scale humanitarian catastrophe right now. Nobody stands for the people of Sudan. #realpolitik pic.twitter.com/l4vu1KObR3

— Velina Tchakarova (@vtchakarova) November 2, 2024

Sudan crisis continues

 

Sudan is living through one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises as the war in the country enters its third year, and for millions, survival is all that’s left. pic.twitter.com/ud9J4qEtNY

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) April 15, 2025

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LASSA FEVER

Lassa fever killed 118 people in Nigeria in the first three months of this year, the West African country's Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) said. https://t.co/4gtF9vkZSM https://t.co/4gtF9vkZSM

— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) March 31, 2025

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💉 The NIH announced a phase 1 trial of a vaccine for Lassa fever, a viral hemorrhagic disease for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment.

We spoke with Wilbur Chen, MD, MS, of @UMmedschool, and Robert F. Garry, PhD, of @Tulane, about the trial.https://t.co/1jWEhaSsIz

— Infectious Disease News (@InfectDisNews) March 24, 2025

Uganda update

I was pleased to attend the Peace celebrations in Yumbe District, commemorating 23 years since warriors chose peace over war in West-Nile.

The NRM consistently supports what is right and rejects revenge. We've never targeted communities based on past conflicts. Today, Uganda… pic.twitter.com/59mo8JjodG

— Yoweri K Museveni (@KagutaMuseveni) April 12, 2025

////////////From the Monitor:Bamuze: A former rebel chief turned peace envoy...,

WEBSITE OF THE NATIONAL RESISTANCE MOVEMENT

petty fights may harm Africa

 I am not sure what this is about, and I ran across it on Gateway Pundit, a right wing site that has a lot of gossip on it.

French President Macron wants European companies to end all American investments.

Two can play this game, Emmanuel.

President @realDonaldTrump should immediately cancel the $5 billion U.S. loan for France's TotalEnergies African LNG project. pic.twitter.com/HYoTPFALe0

— Daniel Turner (@DanielTurnerPTF) April 4, 2025

it seems to rfer to this loan approved last week to Mozambique:

US approves $5 billion loan to TotalEnergies for Mozambique gas project By Reuters March 15, 202

So I asked Grok to summarize all the recent articles on what is going on:

The U.S. approval of a nearly $5 billion loan to TotalEnergies for its Mozambique gas project refers to a decision by the U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM) in March 2025 to reapprove funding for the long-delayed Mozambique LNG project.

 

This project, valued at $20 billion, is led by the French energy giant TotalEnergies, which holds a 26.5% operating stake.

 

The loan, initially approved in 2019 during Donald Trump’s first administration as a $4.7 billion commitment, required reapproval after construction halted in 2021 due to violent unrest in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado region, triggered by an insurgency linked to Islamic State militants.

so the project was not halted by the DOGE vs the French, but because terrorists were attacking it.

The halt led TotalEnergies to declare force majeure, freezing the project before any funds were disbursed.

 

The project aims to tap into vast natural gas reserves—estimated at 65 trillion cubic feet—in the Rovuma Offshore Area 1, positioning Mozambique as a major LNG producer.

 

Security improvements since 2021, bolstered by regional forces including Rwandan security guarantees, and renegotiations with contractors, paved the way for the EXIM board’s decision on March 13, 2025, to reinstate the loan.

 

TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne had anticipated this move, noting in February 2025 that U.S. financing was expected soon, with other export credit agencies (UK and Dutch) likely to follow. The project’s revival is seen as critical for Mozambique’s economic development, with its sovereign dollar bond rising over 2 cents after the announcement.

 

However, recent discussions about canceling this loan stem from geopolitical tensions in April 2025.

 

Posts on X and media reports suggest that Richard Grenell, a key Trump advisor, proposed scrapping the $5 billion loan in retaliation to French President Emmanuel Macron’s call to suspend future European investments in the U.S. Macron’s statement came after Trump imposed tariffs on April 2, 2025, prompting a tit-for-tat escalation. Grenell’s suggestion aligns with a broader push for U.S. energy dominance, arguing that funds should prioritize American LNG leadership rather than foreign projects like TotalEnergies’ in Mozambique.

 

Some X posts reflect sentiment that canceling the loan would signal U.S. resolve, though no official cancellation has been confirmed as of April 5, 2025.

so still only gossip and innuendo.

But what about attacks on the site? And is a lot of the money going to middle men and local corruption instead of actually drilling for gas? Nothing mentioned here, but much of the DOGE cancelations of foreign aide had more to do with middle men/NGOs siphoning off money and corruption that led to donations being diverted or stolen. But no information on this project. 

The idea of cancellation remains speculative, driven by political posturing rather than finalized policy.

 

The loan’s status is still active per the latest reports from March 2025, and TotalEnergies continues preparations to resume construction, with commercial operations eyed for 2028 or later.

  WTF: It is about global warming. I guess it's okay for folk in Mozambique to starve so the Euroweenies and their climate change gods can be obeyed.

Critics of the project, including environmental and human rights groups, have long opposed it, citing climate impacts—potentially 121 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually—and alleged abuses tied to the conflict zone, complicating the narrative around its funding.

that last part? well, remember that the human rights folks thought arresting Duterte for fighting the drug gangs who were causing chaos here in the Philippines was what should be done, Abuses in conflict zones are a real problem, but it is also easy for the bad guys and the partly bad guys to sort of lie about what is going on. 

Whether the Trump administration will act on Grenell’s advice hinges on ongoing U.S.-EU economic frictions, but no concrete steps to cancel have been documented yet.

 

Have Trump tariffs destroyed trade with Africa?

 Al Jazeerah thinks so:

but note that the actual article headline is:

Have Trump’s tariffs killed US-Africa preferential trade?

 they then go on to note:

The AGOA framework that saw African countries export duty free to the US is as good as dead, experts say.

...Donald Trump’s tariffs announcement on most trading partners, including several in Africa, will affect businesses and people across the continent and likely force more producers to trade with China, experts have warned....

Lesotho, the small Southern African country that Trump claimed “ no one has heard of” last month, was hit with the highest tariff rates at 50 percent.

then they repeat the lie that cutting USAID, the organization full of grift, kickbacks, and formenting revolutions, resulted in dead people.  

The country, which carries the second-highest HIV burden of any other in the world, is still reeling from the shock of Trump’s sweeping aid cuts earlier that have gutted HIV response efforts across the region.

 

I suspect that the money for HIV drugs will be reintroduced, but that maybe all the money sent to push gay rights and encourage sex edcuation for promiscuity might have to be cut first (Biden's policy changed the aim of Pepfar from treatment to prevention, meaning push the safe sex agendan in the media and in schools, and protect minority rights, aka let the perverts and sex tourists seduce street kids of both sexes)

Other Southern African countries hit were: Madagascar (47 percent); Mauritius (40 percent); Botswana (37 percent); and Angola (32 percent).

I hate to say this, but this is about protecting US blue collar jobs, and bring them back to the USA. And two other factors: China was using the no tariff for their profit, not the profit of the locals, and of course corruption also was using these laws to divert money into the hands of the crooked businessmen and politicians.

Did you know China lifted their tariffs on African countries last December? That meant that they had tariffs on African goods until then. 

But no one cried about that.

Sigh.

US Congo mineral deal in the future?

 Austin Bay, a military strategy writer on StrategyPage, has one of his syndicated columns discussing the story that the DRC asked Trumpieboy to rescue them 

In mid-February, a firm representing a Democratic Republic of the Congo legislator contacted several U.S. officials... . The letter sketched a sub-Saharan version of President Donald Trump's Ukraine minerals peace initiative.

what are they talking about? 

Would the U.S. be interested in acquiring or investing in Congo's enormous and globally unique trove of critical and rare mineral resources? The DRC has gold, copper, cobalt, tin, tantalum (coltan), lithium, gold and diamonds. The uranium for America's World War II atom bombs came from the then-Belgian Congo. Mobile phone and computer manufacturers need coltan (columbite-tantalite). Cobalt is a 21st-century treasure. Congo is the world's largest producer of cobalt ore, a must-have for electric vehicles.

so why not ask China to do this? Their propaganda always assures us that they will be the macho guys to stop the bad guys in Africa etc? Well, as any Filipino could tell you, China Lies.

In 2006 and 2007, Chinese front companies began buying DRC cobalt, copper and rare earth mineral operations. In 2008 and 2009, China signed the so-called China Deal of 2008 the DRC's Kabila dictatorship. The overall deal was supposedly worth billions. China was supposed to build roads and other infrastructure. It built ... next to nothing. In 2021, Congo condemned China and began legal proceedings to end Beijing's fraud.

peacekeepers also were no good.

But then the Rwanda connection:

The most effective militia is M23 - the March 23 Movement. Last time I looked, M23 had taken control of North Kivu's capital, Goma. The DRC government calls M23 as a terrorist organization controlled by Rwanda in order to exploit Congolese mineral resources. Rwanda, currently led by a government dominated by the Tutsi tribe, says M23 is a Congolese Tutsi militia defending Tutsi rights.

One of my human rights newsletter points out they are just trying to protect their people, and warned me not to believe the MSM propaganda that they are bad.

Lots of analysis about this in the essay.

One doubts that the US wants to get involved: The mess should be handled by Europe, by France and Belgium and the UK who used to own these countries, not the US. However, China is trying to get rare earth minerals monopoly, and countering them might inspire Trumpiboy to do something.

And as you can see in the Ukraine, Europe is a paper tiger, and except for a small special forces types units are toothless. In contrast, the US has quite a few experienced combat soldiers.

Read the whole thing.

the invisible war

 

Ongoing violence and instability, including fighting by M23 rebels, has forced more than 7 million people to flee their homes in DR Congo.

We map the human toll of the conflict betwen DRC and the M23 rebels https://t.co/Mz5fmiqIlF pic.twitter.com/rjIF7TEzXS

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 29, 2025

MPox in Africa

 LINK

, presently, there are 20,000 suspected Clade I/Clade II mpox cases, including 5,000 confirmed cases and 194 deaths, which have been reported across 15 African countries. The Democratic Republic of Congo accounts for most confirmed and suspected cases. The outbreak has been most severe in children under 15 years old due to low immunity and malnutrition, with mortality rates reaching up to 10% in this group.

China' causing problems via Nigeria

 From StrategyPage:

March 24, 2025: The government is going after Chinese citizens who continue to use Nigeria as a base for economic crimes throughout Africa. The Chinese ambassador in Nigeria assured the locals that China was cooperating in identifying and prosecuting Chinese citizens based in Nigeria and committing crimes. China is Nigeria’s largest trading partner and that large volume of trade is what brought Chinese gangsters and independent criminal entrepreneurs to Nigeria. China is currently owed over $5 billion by various Nigerian businesses and individuals. Nigeria is the major African exporter of oil and Chine is one of the top ten buyers.

the rest of the article discusses tribal and religious feuds, and the problem of corruption...

pepfar today

two years ago Biden started diverting funding to sex education

CFAM Report:Feb 2023:

“We are concerned that grants from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) are used by nongovernmental organizations that promote abortions and push a radical gender ideology abroad. We urge you to ensure that any reauthorization of PEPFAR ensures that taxpayer money is not used for such purposes,” the pro-life groups said.

...The pro-life letter points out how many major PEPFAR grant recipients, including the International Planned Parenthood Federation, “publicly support abortion as a method of family planning” and recently complained about the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade as well as U.S. State laws against transgender bathroom and sports policies.

The letter also points out that the Biden administration has directed all federal agencies “to promote abortion and gender ideology abroad.” ...

The (Mexican city policy that forbad funding abortion) was revoked in the first week of the Biden administration.

For the last ten years, PEPFAR has been mostly focused on providing anti-retroviral drugs in poor countries, which accounts for its exorbitant expense. The drugs have made HIV/AIDS a manageable illness in industrialized countries, but their costliness combined with lack of health infrastructure in poor countries continues to make HIV/AIDS a deadly disease in poor countries in Africa and East Asia.

A report of the Heritage Foundation...argues that the program is bloated and mismanaged, and it questions the effectiveness of funding anti-retroviral drugs instead of more funding for health infrastructure to combat other deadly diseases that aren’t related to risky sexual behavior and that claim many more lives in poor countries.

The Heritage report also sheds light on how Democrats are making PEPFAR into the vehicle of “social priorities like abortion and promotion of LGBTI issues.”

sleeping sickness in Zambesi area

 CDC report.

T.b. rhodesiense is endemic in 13 countries.† Since 2011, reported rhodesiense HAT cases have been steadily declining, with only 24 cases reported in 2023...

Between this patient’s presentation in August 2024 and January 2025 three additional cases of rhodesiense HAT were reported to WHO in persons from nonendemic countries who were bitten by a tsetse fly while traveling in the Zambezi Valley.

The Zambezi Valley spans northern Zimbabwe and southern Zambia, where epidemiologic conditions are similar, and the parasite is endemic. These four cases are the first Zambezi Valley–associated cases reported since 2019, although Zambia has experienced human cases in other areas during this period....

BMC 2021 

In the 1980s and 1990s, great strides were taken towards the elimination of tsetse and animal African trypanosomiasis (AAT) in Zimbabwe. However, advances in recent years have been limited. Previously freed areas have been at risk of reinvasion, and the disease in tsetse-infested areas remains a constraint to food security. article

The patterns of tsetse and AAT distributions in Zimbabwe are shaped by a combination of bioclimatic factors, historical events such as the rinderpest epizootic at the turn of the twentieth century

the rinderpest killed a lot of the wild animals so the flies had nothing to bite; the white settlers kept the wild population down by hunting, and when I lived in Zimbabwe,  there was a fenced off zone to keep animals and flies from migrating south from the Zambesi area, and extensive spraying to control flies was done. PDF.

and extensive and sustained tsetse control that is aimed at progressively eliminating tsetse and trypanosomiasis from the entire country. 

The comprehensive dataset assembled in the atlas will improve the spatial targeting of surveillance and control activities. It will also represent a valuable tool for research, by enabling large-scale geo-spatial analyses....

The tsetse-infested area in Zimbabwe is currently estimated at 30,000 km2, which corresponds to 17% of the 180,000 km2 ecologically suitable area originally infested by tsetse [10]. In particular, tsetse distribution in Zimbabwe has always been restricted to the north, northwest, northeast and southeast of the country with the central highveld being ecologically unsuitable for the fly.

fake cows that smell like cows and attract the flies are one means of control....2001 article BMJ...

the cows were introduced into Zimbabwe in the mid-1980s, when thousands of cattle were infected with nagana, a disease equivalent to sleeping sickness in cattle. Cases of nagana in the country plummeted to almost zero and have remained at this low level for the past five years. A total of 60000 cows are now in use in Zimbabwe...

TED talk about genetically altering cattle to stop the disease

Moral colonialism

 

Rwanda Congo Uganda conflict: money, minerals, and/or human rights?

 I am not sure of what is going on... the western press seems to oppose the rebels, but a local human rights group says the rebels are the good guys.

Here are a few videos:

////

this one is from an India site; a summary and telling the Congolese point of view:

heart of darkness part two and three

 History lesson of the week:

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the phrase Heart of Darkness comes from Conrad's book: which is partly based on his own experiences.

the book can be downloaded from Project Gutenberg.

Few westerners were aware of this, until the book King Leopold's Ghost was published in 1998.

I am reading it on Everand which is a subscription book service, and their sistersite Scribd also has it... or you can download a pdf,  from LINK, and I also found the audiobook in chapters  on you tube LINK

the heart of darkness

History lesson

 

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African conflicts

 the discussion starts by discussing African conflicts.

Sigh.

trafficking for medicine

https://www.makumbirofafarms.co.za/2025/01/06/justice-served-death-penalty-for-human-trafficker-lovermore-sithole/