Just about the only people not making money out of the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo are its long-suffering citizens.
The country has been carved up by warring factions and foreign armies. Hundreds of thousands of people are dead; more than two million are homeless. What little infrastructure Mobutu Sese Seko did not wreck during his three decades of misrule has mostly been destroyed by fighting, or has finally succumbed to neglect.
The country’s riches have been mortgaged and plundered by what passes for a government in Kinshasa, and by foreign soldiers and local warlords. As always, Western businesses have stepped in to exploit the upheaval. But they have been outclassed by more ruthless players. The scramble to exploit the turmoil began even before Mobutu was overthrown four years ago.
A United States firm, America Mineral Fields, signed a £680-million deal to mine -copper, cobalt and zinc in Congo. A large down-payment to Laurent Desiré Kabila to fund his rebellion doubtless helped secure the deal. The company had been negotiating with Mobutu a few weeks earlier, but as soon as it realised that his days were numbered it switched its allegiance. It flew Kabila around what was still Zaire in its private jet and found other ways to curry favour.
The loser was South African -mining giant Anglo American. Canadian firm Tenke Fungurume Mining snapped up a £170-million investment in a privatised mine near Lubumbashi. An Israeli -company gained control of much of the diamond trade, which still accounts for more than half of -Congo’s export revenues. A slew of other companies fought to get a foot in the door. Many came to regret it.
Kabila took their money and failed to honour contracts. Some firms are still waiting to see if it is worth putting more money into Congo, in the hope of getting a return on the cash they have already sunk in. The real beneficiaries have been the foreign belligerents in a war that has drawn in tens of thousands of troops from nine countries.
At the start of the latest conflict, in October 1998, Kabila bought the backing of Zimbabwe’s army with a promise that its intervention would be “self-financing”. That opened the door to a number of companies fronting for President Robert Mugabe and his military chiefs.
A state-owned firm run by retired army officers, Zimbabwe Defence Industries, was contracted to provide arms to Kinshasa. In return, a Zimbabwean mining firm, Ridgepointe, got a one-third share and management control of the potentially highly profitable Congolese state mining company, Geca-mines. About half the profits were to go to Harare to pay for its war -machine. But the Gecamines experience has not been a happy one.
Mugabe installed businessman Billy Rautenbach to turn the company around in the face of £700-million in debts. Rautenbach was not a success, in part because Zimbabwe did not invest the tens of millions required to revive full production. But he did serve Mugabe’s purpose of ensuring that the Zimbabweans got their cut of revenues from cobalt and copper mining. Kabila sacked Rautenbach, to Mugabe’s chagrin.
Another company run by Zimbabwe’s army, Osleg, is heavily involved in buying diamonds and gold, and a Zimbabwean state farm has been given 500 000ha of land in the southern Congolese province of Katanga. Zimbabwe’s Minister of Defence Moven Mahachi has long denied that his forces are in Congo for profit. “You don’t go where people lose lives just because you want to make a few dollars. But as a result of our presence, a number of Zimbabwe businessmen are taking advantage of the goodwill there. If they don’t, others will.”
Foreign forces on the rebel side have also been “self-financing” their intervention, and making a tidy profit, too. Uganda’s gold exports have risen almost tenfold since its involvement in Congo, and its £400-million trade deficit has been erased.
President Yoweri Museveni’s brother, Major General Salim Saleh, until recently had valuable gold mining concessions in Congo, and runs a profitable air cargo business to rebel-held territory. Other officers control or lease diamond and cobalt concessions. The Ugandans also rely on the rebels they support to provide revenues from “taxes” on tea, coffee and timber exports.
Rwanda’s economy has been bolstered by its occupation of swathes of eastern Congo. Some of its soldiers have got rich, and the army has financed an extensive rearmament programme.
However most of the belligerents in Congo would like to see an end to a war that is costing them too much of the money they are making. There is no victory in sight, but that does not mean they will surrender the financial rewards. Long after the fighting is over, Congo is likely to be parcelled up by profiteers.