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DR Congo’s minister of communications said “you cannot look at Africa with American eyes,” during an interview at Semafor’s The Next 3 Billion summit, when questioned about how perceptions of conflict in the mineral-rich country’s east were impacting investment.
“That’s why Western countries are losing space. China is getting more space. Not because we don’t want to work on democracy, on all those things, but those cannot be the first condition,” Patrick Muyaya said.
His comments came as the US attempts to broker peace between DR Congo and neighboring Rwanda. The two African countries signed an agreement in June, but it has failed to stop fighting in eastern DR Congo, where Rwanda-backed M23 rebels are fighting Kinshasa’s forces.
At Semafor’s summit, Muyaya blamed Rwanda for failing to hold up its end of the deal and for denying its links to M23, calling for the US administration to pile more pressure on Kigali.
“We are very close to peace, and we are very close to the war at the same time,” he said, touting the involvement of the US administration as a positive. “One thing is what they [Rwanda] can say diplomatically, but the situation on the ground requires, I think, more pressure from the American administration.”
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Muyaya also spoke about the US-backed multibillion-dollar Lobito Corridor project — which includes building and revamping railways from Angola’s western Lobito port through to critical mineral hubs in neighboring Zambia and DR Congo. He called the project, which will provide the US with access to strategic minerals, a “gamechanger.” The EU in June also announced an investment of almost $1 billion in the project.
DR Congo is the world’s largest producer of minerals including cobalt and coltan — key components of a wide range of products such as electric vehicle batteries, mobile phones, and laptops.