Western media fuelling DRC crisis

Author: Lindah Uwase

• 2023-04-01 05:17:00

British newspaper, Financial Times, on March 20, published a report quoting Nicolas Kazadi, the DRC’s finance minister saying that: “Rwanda last year exported close to $1bn in gold, tin, tantalum and tungsten.”

The moment Kazadi’s request to have his narrative published by Financial Times came through, he seized the opportunity to unleash all sorts of lies. He knew it was a moment for him to exploit one of the top media outlets globally and advance a false narrative.

But Kazadi aside, the Financial Times took a step farther to know how DRC mineral exports stood as of the end of 2022, and precisely reported that: “DRC exported 2,220 tonnes of coltan last year, up 54 per cent from 2021.”

But surprisingly, despite Kazadi’s allegations which were subject to verification, the British media house did not bother looking for revenues generated by Rwanda in the mineral industry.

What Financial Times failed to report is; Rwanda’s mineral exports generated just $683 million in 2022 while DRC’s mineral exports that shoot up by 54 per cent increase generated reflecting a $15billion.

In fact, in 2020, the DRC was the world’s largest cobalt miner with a production of 95,000 tons, or nearly 41 per cent of the world’s cobalt. The DRC was the sixth largest producer of industrial diamonds in 2020 with a production of 3.7 million carats.

Now, DRC is accusing Rwanda of plundering its minerals, yet the same DRC is making a fortune of its mineral but does not want the world to know those facts because this will make them run out of excuses of blaming Rwanda.

These facts are public, yet Financial Times looked aside and published a deceitful article to hoodwink the public into believing the DRC narrative.

There is no doubt that the DRC has made a fortune from its minerals, and after failing on several fronts to demonise Rwanda, Kinshasa is now investing a fortune in buying off big media houses to advance anti-Rwanda propaganda.

To have such a story run in Financial Times, one may have to part with over $21million for a 500-word story – the cost of a lie!

As disinformation and hate speech intensify during periods of armed conflict and political unrest, it is not only the Financial Times that is making a fortune out of it.

The DRC got into the bedsheets of The Times of UK to publish an article urging the British government to sanction Rwanda. Rwanda is not plundering DRC minerals.

Instead, DRC is investing its own mineral money into anti-Rwanda propaganda. One may ask, why?

Well, the answer is simple. Kinshasa is well aware of its weaknesses and is in denial.  Therefore, they must create an expensive lie that will buy them time to stay in power. Truth be told, if anyone is plundering DRC it’s the Congolese.