the badk story of the DRC peace plan

 This is the back story of why the DRC reached out to the US insted of China for a peace deal. 

so why the US and not China? 

Because China didn't keep their promises to help develop the country in exchange for buying developing stealing their valuable resources. 

So here is what SP /Austin Bay wrote a couple months ago:

April 3, 2025

In mid-February, a firm representing a Democratic Republic of the Congo legislator contacted several U.S. officials. The recipients included Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The letter sketched a sub-Saharan version of President Donald Trump's Ukraine minerals peace initiative. 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.

Beijing coveted the DRC's mineral trove -- a global position of immense economic import. 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.

Italics mine. 

In 2021, Congo condemned China and began legal proceedings to end Beijing's fraud.

....

 

(by the way China pulled the same trick on Duterte, who thought all the anti China stuff was CIA trying to let the US take over our resources, but he got shafted by China and then stared to make nice with the USA).

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.

informal banks in Zimbabwe

"At the banks, I can’t get loans because they are very strict and require you to be formally employed and to have collateral."

How a hawker in Zimbabwe joined an informal savings club for financial support ⤵️ https://t.co/7Nkmtyy6Tb

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 8, 2023

................full article at AlJ:---------

Mali, Gold and the Wagner Group

No, I don't know much about Mali, but StrategyPage notes they produce gold, and are using gold to pay for things that foreign aid used to pay for. But of course the common folk aren't getting much benefit. And they note that ordinary folk are doing what we call mom and pop gold mining (They do this in the Philippines, and it is more dangerous and more polluting than professional companies, but, again, I don't know much about this).

But they note the Wagner group, a mercenary group of Russians who are notorious for their work in the Ukraine, are there and trained local soldier to keep the government in place.

and they are paying them in gold.

The article explains that Mali threw out the French and UN peacekeepers partly because they reported on atrocities by the Govt troops and the Wagner group

But the peacekeepers are there to stop Islamic groups who are terrorists and also who threaten the government.

it's the corruption of course

The Mali peacekeeping operation costs about half a billion dollars a month and that is about the only foreign aid Mali gets now that the military government is in control. Most foreign aid was halted because the government was stealing so much of the aid. It is difficult to steal any of the money spent on peacekeepers but the government seems to be trying to do just that.

and of course the problem is that the Islamic terrorists are growing and threatening nearby states

this report from DW last week discusses the good and bad points of the Wagner group

in the past Timbuktu and Mali were a major source of gold. Lecture here discusses.

in other words, it was a civilized area when western Europe was undeveloped.

Africa investing in Africa

TPMBarnett links to a WSJ article about the decrease in overseas investments due to the recession, but notes the increase in the number of Africans investing in their own continent.

But the good news of the piece: Africans themselves have picked up a decent portion of the slack, which is quite encouraging.
Total self-sustainable liftoff?  Hardly.  Africa's great hope of the past few years is that rising Asia (and other developing risers) might provide a sustained demand for materials that the West, in its more isolated boom-and-bust cycles of the Cold War, ever could.

key illustration:

Civil servants to strike?

from Zim online

"

The Apex council that met with the government in the capital yesterday brings together civil service unions -- the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), Zimbabwe Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ZIMTA), Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (TUZ), College Lecturers Association of Zimbabwe (COLAZ) and Public Service Association (PSA).

The offer rejected by workers would have seen the lowest paid among them taking home about $160 up from $128 with the highest paid civil servants earning around $241 per month.

Transport and housing allowances were similarly slightly increased from $7 to $20 and from $6 to $12 respectively.

Chikowere said civil servants want the lowest paid worker taking home around U$500, money the unity government of President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai -- which says it already is using 60 percent of total collected revenues on salaries -- says it does not have."

Mugabe threatens "revenge"

from AlJezeerah:

...Zimbabwe's president has threatened to nationalise British and US-owned businesses operating in the country if economic sanctions imposed on his political party are not lifted....


Under empowerment laws, black Zimbabweans are slated to acquire 51 per cent of all businesses. In a live broadcast on state television, Mugabe warned UK and US firms that "unless you remove sanctions, we will take 100 per cent"....

well, that's a good way to encourage investment in the economy.

Biti storms out of cabinet meeting

from SWRadioAfrica

Finance Minister Tendai Biti reportedly stormed out of a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, leaving Robert Mugabe ‘stunned.’ ...


The paper quotes unnamed ministers saying the finance minister was engaged in a ferocious fight, with ministers Patrick Chinamasa and Simbarashe Mumbengegwi over how to deal with RBZ’s debt profile.
Many ministers from ZANU PF have been stripping bare RBZ assets, via a flood of claims over unpaid debts. Many of the claims are believed to be fraudulent....

Privitizing bankrupt businesses

from the VOA

Zimbabwean business sources say most of the state enterprises the government has slated for privatization are heavily indebted and laying off workers, adding that potential investors in companies like Air Zimbabwe fear they will assume the debts as part of an acquisition then lose control to senior ZANU-PF officials.

They said investors want legislation in place that will protect them from political interference.

Zimbabwe returning to normal

from Reuters:

...

Today, shops in the capital are fully stocked with goods which anyone can buy as long as they pay in U.S. dollars. Zimbabwe's government allowed the use of multiple currencies in early 2009, effectively making the dollar the official currency.

Harare's streets are markedly cleaner than they were six months ago, grocery shops have sprung up all over the capital -- offering goods at prices comparable to neighbouring South Africa -- and there are more new vehicles on the roads.

But much-needed investment from abroad remains absent and the country's stock exchange has seen foreign investors retreat after the introduction of regulations calling for foreign-owned companies to transfer a majority stake to Zimbabweans.

Zimbabwe moved to implement the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act that requires foreign firms to sell a 51 percent stake to local blacks at the end of January.

"The foreigners are sniffing around. You can see that from the full hotels but nothing will happen until the economy picks up," said one banker in Harare.

BILLIONS NEEDED

Zimbabwe's power-sharing government, set up by President Robert Mugabe and his rival Morgan Tsvangirai, now the country's prime minister, has estimated around $10 billion is needed to repair the economy. Continued...

Cautious optimism in Zim

from the BBC:

It is five months since I was last in Zimbabwe, and there is no doubt that the mood has changed.

I'm here officially now, rather than sneaking around under cover, and of course that alters one's perceptions.


Our presence in Zimbabwe this week, is a welcome, constructive, and important first step


But there's more to it than that.

Almost everyone I've spoken to over the past few days has, with varying degrees of caution, confessed to feeling at least a twinge of optimism about this battered nation. ...

but some note:
"Things are not yet improving. It is only stabilising. We are getting some food in the shops, but to get money is a problem. Industry is still down. At the moment only a small percentage (of the population) is working."

"Prices are very high. People don't really know the true value of the (US) dollar. Things are changing slowly. Very slowly."

Diamond output now at a record

from Reuters UK

HARARE, May 7 (Reuters) - Rio Tinto's (RIO.L)(RIO.AX) Zimbabwe's diamond unit Murowa produced a record 260,000 carats last year compared to 145,000 carats in 2007, the company's managing director said on Thursday....

400 Million credit from Africa

from Reuters

..."COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) has provided a line of credit and so have Botswana and South Africa and that brings the line of credit to $400 million," Biti said.

"Botswana is giving us $70 million and South Africa is giving us $50 million and COMESA is giving us the bulk of the amount."

State media reported on Wednesday that the southern African country had secured $400 million in credit lines to help the local economy recover from years of economic contraction and hyper-inflation.
....

The Great MirAge of Western Aid

from New Zimbabwe (blog)

... the rich nations as a group can afford the US$8,5 billion which it is estimated Zimbabwe urgently needs. Only I have a few questions: Why would the UK borrow money from the IMF to give it to Zimbabwe? ...

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai made the point in a letter to the G20 leaders this week that Zimbabwe should not be denied aid simply “because the new government does not meet or match the ‘clean slate’ or ‘total victory’ standards expected by the West”.

He went on: “As a proud nation, we look forward to the day when we can develop our relationship with the West beyond merely being a beneficiary of emergency aid. We want to become a true economic partner and an investment opportunity for those who respect the true value of our natural resources and our sovereignty over them.”...

US dollar eases inflation

from AlJezeerah:

Zimbabweans have seen a slight fall in the price of everyday items since the government allowed shops to abandon the local currency in favour of the US dollar, government figures indicated.

The data showed consumer prices fell in the first two months of the year, media reports on Friday said, raising hopes that there could be an end to the country's rampant hyper-inflation.

Data from the Central Statistical Office showed inflation at -3.1 per cent on a monthly basis in February and -2.3 per cent in January....

Runaway inflation tamed?

from TimeMagazine

(photoPhilimon Bulawayo / Reuters)
The Zimbabwean government's dollarization program has stopped inflation and made food prices more constant...

...The decision to "dollarize" Zimbabwe's economy, one of the first acts of the new unity government (including erstwhile enemies President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai), has brought a small amount of stability to the economically ruined country. All civil servants now earn a monthly salary of U.S. $100, while shops and banks accept dollars and rands.The move to dump the Zimbabwe dollar has also stemmed the country's runaway inflation. ...

Chiadzwa mine report

From Bloomberg:

March 26 (Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwe Mining and Development Corp. is extracting up to 60,000 carats a week from the country’s Chiadzwa Diamond Fields, the Zimbabwe Times said, citing Mining Minister Obert Mpofu.

The state-owned ZMDC needs new equipment in order to meet its target income of $600,000 a day from Chiadzwa, also known as the Marange fields, the U.S.-based online newspaper said, citing Mpofu in a speech to parliament in the capital, Harare....

Zm needs $2B to fix economy

from the aP

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa's finance minister says Zimbabwe has asked countries in the region for $2 billion dollars to salvage its collapsed economy and infrastructure.

Trevor Manuel told South African radio that Zimbabwe wanted half to be used for emergencies in education, health and municipal services. The other half would help kick start retail and other sectors...

But most southern African nations are themselves reeling from the global economic downturn, and there is skepticism about how the money would be used...

Indian investments overseas

December 2008 from Indian Brand Equity Foundation
via GeostrategyBlog

Most of the news about overseas investments is about China, but India also has a growing economy...the article is long, and only one African investment noted, but remember, unlike China (who hate foreigners, and look down on whites and blacks as inferior) India has had merchants in Africa for over a century...many have left, but many still work there, including new immigrants...


...According to the latest UNCTAD's World Investment Report 2007 (WIR '07), India’s outward foreign direct investment (FDI) was the second highest at US$ 20.4 billion after Brazil at US$ 28 billion. Significantly, while China's outward FDI rose by 32 per cent, to US$ 16 billion in 2006, India's outward FDI went up by almost four times....


* Pharma major, Lupin, has bought a majority stake in Pharma Dynamics (PD), which is the sixth largest generic drug company in South Africa. Though the amount of the deal was not revealed, sources said deal amounted to about US$ 24 million. Earlier, Lupin Limited had acquired over 30 per cent stake in Generic Health Pty Ltd of Australia, after acquiring Hormosan Pharma, a Germany-based company and Kyowa Pharmaceuticals, a Japanese firm, in 2007...

Zim investments will be respected if they are fair says MDC

from MINING WEEKLY via GeostrategyBlog:

Zimbabwe has the second-largest platinum resource in the world, and a host of other metals and minerals, which makes South Africa’s troubled neighbour an attractive mining destination.

Some, like the world’s second-largest platinum company, Impala Platinum, of Johannesburg, and junior Aquarius Platinum, which is listed in Johannesburg and Australia, grasped the Zimbabwe nettle years ago and had been reaping rich rewards until recently, when the platinum price collapsed.

Others, like platinum and chrome explorer Kameni, are very recent entrants, and then there are still others, like South Africa’s black-owned African Rainbow Minerals, that make no bones about being attracted by Zimbabwe’s prospectivity, have still not made any investment announcements and are presumably awaiting a globally acceptable political settlement, which several politicians, analysts and corporations believe may be only a stone’s throw away.

Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Morgan Tsvangirai, which is the frontrunning political entity that holds a key to a possible acceptable political outcome, has been vocal about mining companies investing in Zimbabwe.

The Johannesburg-based MDC treasurer-general, Roy Bennett, suggests that any new Zimbabwe government would need to scrutinise the mining investments that have been made to ensure that they are all able to withstand the full glare of the most rigorous of modern-day corporate-governance scrutiny....


Impala Platinum CEO David Brown is invariably open to media questioning at results presentations and has engaged in transparent transactions and ‘indigenisation’, the Zimbabwe equivalent of South Africa’s black economic-empowerment policy.

Brown has expressed parti- cular concern about the obli- gation that Impala Platinum has in Zimbabwe to continue to provide the employment that its activities at its 87%-owned Zimplats and Mimosa offer to the suffering people of Zimbabwe.

Brown is on record as praising the diligence and can-do approach of the employees of Zimplats and Mimosa, a view often also expressed by Aquarius Platinum CEO Stuart Murray.

Aquarius is also a shareholding in the Mimosa mine and there have been occasions where quarterly results have shown the high productivity levels that the Zimbabwe workforce is able to achieve.

Carroll says that Anglo American is still developing the infrastructure, roads and water supply at Unki, and, if the poli- tical environment improves, expects to break ground and start producing platinum in 2010.

“It’s a very big orebody. We have to keep investing to hold onto it. ...

more details at link