November 27, 2002
Africa's vast mineral wealth, especially diamonds and oil, have fueled the continent's most protracted wars in Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sudan. The link between natural resources and conflicts burst into the open in October, when the United Nations released a report detailing the pillage of DRC's natural resources since war there broke out in 1998.
Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe deployed troops to prop up the government against rebels backed by Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda. All the countries involved in the war have benefited to varying degrees from the DRC's enormous natural wealth in precious stones, copper, cobalt and other rare minerals like germanium and coltan.
Intermediaries including armed groups, DRC business leaders, and local employees of mineral companies have also profited. Rwanda used the minerals in eastern DRC to finance its armed forces.
Belgium, the DRC's former colonial ruler, has officially condemned such practices, but several Belgian expatriates and businessmen also have been implicated. The UN report named 54 people, including some 20 military and political officials from the DRC, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe, as leaders in the network to exploit the former Zaire's wealth.
Prospects for peace in the DRC have risen with foreign troops leaving the country and intense talks underway on a government that would include all parties to the conflict. But the UN report warned that the pillage could continue, as gangs and rebels linked to armies don't look ready to dismantle.
DRC President Joseph Kabila has sacked three ministers cited in the report, but the countries who deployed troops to his country have taken no action against those named by the report. Angola, rich in oil and diamonds, ended a 27-year civil war in April. Both the government and the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) financed their operations with the country's underground wealth.
Revenue from offshore oil deposits funded the government, while UNITA tapped into diamond wealth to fuel its rebellion -- in the same way that Sierra Leone's rebels did during their 1991-2001 war.
Unlike the Angolan people, whose country has been decimated by the war, international oil giants have never suffered an attack on their offshore wells, which continue to pump at enormous profit. Oil is also a major factor in Sudan's civil war, which broke out in 1983.
The Khartoum government has been accused of using oil money to pay for its war against Christian and animist guerrillas in the south, and of practicing a scorched earth campaign in oil-rich regions to eliminate civilians suspected of supporting the guerrillas. The guerrillas conduct regular raids on oil installations.
Dividing the oil wealth has emerged as one of the key issues in peace talks. While Sudan hasn't suffered the wholesale looting of its riches like the DRC, foreign players have fallen under pressure to pull out.
The Canadian firm Talisman Energy sold its interest in Sudan's oil sector in October, following intense campaigning by human rights groups. To a lesser degree, instability in other African countries, such as the Central African Republic, has been bolstered by mineral wealth.
Libya, which has deployed forces to support Centrafrican President Ange-Felix Patasse since a May 2001 coup attempt, received in June a 99-year concession to mine diamonds and possibly drill for oil.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C íŸ 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
