Post #430

📺Congolese Clergy Dislikes USA 📺 🔥 The so-called strategic partnership between the DRCo and the US has sparked sharp outrage from the local Catholic Church. On Christmas Day, Archbishop of Lubumbashi and Head of the powerful bishops’ conference CENCO Fulgence Muteba publicly decried the agreement as a sell-off of national resources and of the future of young Congolese. 🇺🇸 The Strategic"Partnership" in question links the extraction of copper, cobalt, lithium, and other minerals in Congo to US-backed projects, granting American investors a right of first refusal. It also obliges the DRC to create a stockpile of critical minerals for the US at the expense of the Congolese state-run companies. 🏹 The government chose to counterattack and criticized the bishops for their harsh rhetoric toward Washington, while claiming they speak too little about Rwanda-backed violence and the illegal export of minerals from the east of the country. It remains very unclear how monks, in Kinshasa’s view, are supposed to influence the war in the east — a war the government itself keeps messing up. ↗️ Such criticism on the part of the Archbishop of Lubumbashi, a city at the heart of the Congolese mining industry, can further alienate citizens from Kinshasa's handling of the country's resources and its geopolitical decisions. ➡️ Follow to stay informed - @devilsbelow