According to the latest report from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), released Friday, the billions of dollars from natural resources trafficking (ivory, gold, timber) fund dozens of armed groups in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are feeding the chronic conflict.
These large-scale trafficking "ore, gold, wood, coal and products of wildlife such as ivory" relate to $ 1.3 billion annually and finance, according to the various estimates, between 25 and 49 Congolese armed groups. This is the golden traffic is the biggest of these revenues, relating to 120 million dollars a year.
The floor of the DRC is rich in natural resources (gold, coltan, copper, cobalt, diamonds, iron, nickel), but its population is plunged into extreme poverty. In 2014, the country occupied the penultimate place worldwide in terms of human development.
"The funds received by criminal gangs (...) could have been used to build schools, roads, hospitals and a future for the Congolese people," said Martin Kobler, the Head of Mission of the UN in the DRC ( MONUSCO), the largest UN peacekeeping mission in the world in terms of numbers. "Imagine if we could spend hundreds of millions of dollars of that revenue flights, stolen by criminal gangs in eastern DRC to pay teachers, doctors and promote business and tourism," he has estimated.
According to Unep, only 2% of the earnings of traffic goes directly into the pockets of armed groups. The rest of the money goes to "cross-border criminal networks" operating in the DRC but also in neighboring countries (Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania), and the strategy of "divide and rule" prevents control of all traffic by one armed group.
The report is also concerned about the fate of the mountain gorillas living in the Virunga National Park, located in the region, whose habitat is threatened by deforestation due to the production of charcoal. They also denounce attempts to declassify the park in order to exploit its wood and its oil.
With AFP
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