Gorilla Journal 24, June 2002

Ongoing Pillage of Resources

In May, the UN reported on the consequences of the continued exploitation of natural resources in the Democratic Republic of the the Congo. According to their report, it has a ruinous effect on the civilian population.
The UN panel of experts said that the different foreign armies and armed groups – both foreign and Congolese – employ various strategies to divert revenues for personal gain or to pay foreign armies – either to maintain their support against rival groups or to finance continuing, existing military operations. Their immediate effect has been "the further collapse of most local economies and the deepening impoverishment of most Congolese families", according to the report.
Meanwhile, the humanitarian toll of this continuing exploitation is widespread, especially in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. "Local populations, including children, are being conscripted and used as forced labour in the extraction of resources by some military forces in different regions," the report said. Other tactics, such as the destruction of infrastructure for agricultural production, are allegedly used by different armed parties to force people to participate in extraction work, leading in part to increased food insecurity.
Oxfam, one of the few humanitarian agencies managing programs in Congo, released a report accusing Uganda of continued plunder of Congo's resources: Poverty in the midst of wealth. It was published after the volcanic eruptions near Goma and was handed over to the French and British Foreign Ministers.
The report indicates that up to 2.5 million Congolese have died in less than 4 years from 1998 to 2002, many of them as a result of malnutrition and preventable disease, and that 65% of the estimated 35 million Congolese are undernourished.