Post #442

📺 Africa's Ever-Troubled Roads 📺 DRC promises protection to Zambians as unrest threatens cross-border traffic 🌐Crimes against cargo trucks along the shared border, particularly near the Kasumbalesa crossing, prompted a meeting on January 6 between the Zambian ambassador and the DRC’s Vice Prime Minister for the Interior and Security Jacquemin Shabani, who promised measures to curb illegal activities. 🏹 Zambia’s concerns stem from attacks both by ordinary criminals, who hijack trucks carrying copper products for resale amid high copper prices, and from periodic surges of discontent among the local population. 🔥The latest unrest in Kolwezi, sparked by restrictions on artisanal copper and cobalt mining, also saw disruptions of the movement of mineral trucks, while some sources reported a deadly accident involving a Zambian truck driver. ↗️ Zambia’s concern is just another symptom of Kinshasa’s detachment from the realities of ordinary people at the far end of the country. As direct mechanisms of democratic signaling between the authorities and the population continue to fail, making the Congolese government listen to its people requires real victims — and an intervention of a foreign ambassador. ➡️ Follow to stay informed - @devilsbelow