“The western world is making sure that their interests in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) are preserved at all costs. A genuine solution can only be made by Congolese themselves,” according to Professor Wamba dia Wamba, a senator from the DRC. Prof Wamba argues that western countries have been inciting the fighting in the DRC to create instability which allows them to exploit the country’s mineral wealth at little or no cost.
It is true that substantial quantities of minerals are being exported illegally from the DRC, and a significant proportion of that is being used to fund the fighting activities of various rebel groups within the DRC. However it requires a particularly anti-Western mindset to interpret these facts as indicating that the current insecurities in the DRC are being deliberately masterminded by the western world.
The current insecurities in the DRC seem to stem primarily from the overflow of the Hutu/Tutsi conflict from Rwanda to the DRC in the aftermath of the Rwandan crisis. This has been a distinctively African war, with the involvement of armies from Rwanda and Uganda on one side with Angola, Namibia, Chad, Sudan and Zimbabwe on the other. Around 5 million people are said to have been killed over the past ten years.