US imperialism: the real master of the game in the war against the Democratic Republic of Congo
Written by Maurice Odingo, a Pan-Africanist organizer based in the DRC and the General Secretary of the Comité de Kinshasa.
While the people of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo suffer the daily horrors of war, mass displacement, violence and misery, international imperialism, led by the United States, advances masked as a mediator. What is presented to us as a peace initiative is in reality nothing more than a strategic operation to regain lost economic leverage. The aim is clear: to regain total control of the Congo's mineral resources and reassert the domination of the Western powers over the heart of Africa.
A weakened empire, but determined to rule
For several years now, American multinationals have been gradually losing their grip on Congolese soil. The emblematic case of Tenke Fungurume Mining (TFM), one of the continent's largest copper and cobalt production sites, is a perfect illustration. Once a bastion of U.S. capital, the company has come under the partial control of Chinese interests via Glencore, marking a breach in Western hegemony. This loss of ground has not been digested by Washington, which intends to regain its place at the top of the exploitation chain.
The Lobito corridor: an imperial plot disguised as an integration project
In response to this setback, former US president, Joe Biden travelled to Angola to inaugurate the Lobito Corridor, a rail project designed to link Congolese and Zambian mines to the Atlantic port of Lobito. The project is presented in the media as a model of regional cooperation, but behind this technocratic veneer lies a system of intensified extraction, entirely structured around American interests. More than 80% of the revenues generated will be captured by the United States, to the total detriment of local populations. Africa lends its land, its labor, its blood, but only reaps the crumbs.
Peace according to Washington: securing access to resources
At the same time as this infrastructure project, the USA is imposing itself as a false peace power in the conflict between the DRC and Rwanda. They organize summits, appoint Togo as mediator, orchestrate “high-level meetings” between Presidents Tshisekedi and Kagame - all under their supervision. But we know that it's not peace they're after, but control. They want a tailor-made stability that allows the circulation of raw materials, not one that sets people free.
Behind every ceasefire and every diplomatic communiqué lies a calculation: how to secure export routes? How to neutralize local resistance? How to keep a docile elite in power? War becomes a tool, a variable in the imperial profit equation.
Organizing a popular Pan-African response
As Pan-Africanist activists, we say: enough is enough. Africa's history is marked by centuries of plunder, domination and organized violence in the name of “development”. But this domination no longer always takes the form of the bayonet: it is economic, technological and media-driven. Today, it is camouflaged in the vocabulary of green economy, human rights and energy transition - while our resources are stolen and our people are starved.
The DRC is not an anomaly: it is a symbol. What is happening there is a mirror image of what awaits other African nations if we don't break this cycle. The answer will not come from international institutions or agreements signed in drawing rooms. It will come from the masses: workers, peasants, students, women, young people, all united in the same struggle for our dignity, our sovereignty and our future.
Rebuilding Africa on its own foundations
We must wrest from imperialism what it has stolen from us: our land, our wealth, our power. This will require a complete break with global capitalism and the construction of an African socialism rooted in our realities, led by the people themselves, founded on justice, democratic planning and continental solidarity.