He assures that the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo “have sacrificed themselves so that Europeans can live in opulence”
November 15 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Congolese journalist and activist Caddy Adzuba, Princess of Asturias Award for Concord in 2014, denounced this Tuesday that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is plunged into a “catastrophic” situation caused by an “economic war with multinationals behind it”.
In an event held in Madrid and organized by the NGO Entreculturas, Adzuba has warned that the Congolese population is exploited, including women and children, to “extract all possible minerals, especially coltan”, so that Europeans can make telephones mobiles and computers, among other products.
“I give the example of Belgium, a country that does not have particularly many natural resources nor does it produce much but is considered a rich country. But why and at whose expense? The answer is clear: there are people who have decided to go to African countries to implement a strategy so that the population is destabilized and take advantage of it as much as possible”, he maintained before insisting that, “by chance, wars take place in the African countries richest in natural resources”.
In this sense, he stressed that there are countries with fewer resources of this type and that “do not present major conflicts.” That is why he has stressed that these are “economic wars backed by multinationals” even though they “are not directly on the front line.”
“Multinationals finance those wars that interest them. For example, the country consists of 27 provinces and not all of them are at war. There are some that are, precisely the richest, and there are others in which there is no conflict. But unfortunately, of Where I come from, there is constant war. Since I was 14 years old, we have lived in this situation,” he lamented before pointing out that millions have died as a result of the conflict in the east of the country.
Likewise, it has warned that close to a million women have been raped, an approximate figure that could be higher. “It is a decimated country” despite the fact that it has “immeasurable natural resources”, such as gold, coltan, uranium or diamonds.
“We sacrifice ourselves so that Europeans live in opulence, so that they have their telephones, their computers, so that they can build buildings”, he stressed while condemning the strong prejudices that exist regarding the different countries of Africa and the continuous exploitation of its resources.
Adzuba has denied that it is really a war between Africans and has qualified that it is “a war that Europe is carrying out in Africa”. “There are many multinationals with an eye on mining and the eastern part of the country is richer than the western. To be able to enter such a large country, you have to ally with neighboring countries. Countries like France and Germany are also behind everything. this,” he explained.
In relation to the increase in clashes between the Army and members of the March 23 Movement (M23) militia, which have intensified in recent months, he clarified that those who sought war in the country “have used the ethnic aspect “. “An ethnic minority has been taken over and an armed military group, the M23, has been formed. This is the main group waging war in the east,” he added.
The activist, who recalled that some 100,000 people have had to move due to the armed conflict, has pointed to the Rwandan Army as the main support for the rebels. “The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a country that has been suffering from war for more than 20 years and that right now cannot buy weapons to defend itself, so it has a government in a very fragile situation,” she said.
“The objective of the war is not in itself to conquer the country but to have control over these natural resources, such as oil and gas, and to control the eastern zone, which is precisely the zone where these resources can be exploited. This is the objective of the armed group, but they are not going to be in charge of exploiting these resources, but the multinationals that support them and countries like the United States or France, the usual ones,” he asserted.
THE SITUATION OF WOMEN
Adzuba has also directed attention to the terrible situation of women in the country, where “the war is carried out in their bodies”, as she has expressed. “Many armed groups act with the sole objective of spreading terror among local communities,” she said.
Thus, he has urged “to name the victims of sexual violence and rape”, given that “sometimes the figures are not sufficiently faithful to reality”. “If we talk about mutilation, we talk about the atrocity experienced by the women who suffer it,” she has indicated before detailing that “we are no longer talking about rapes but about femicides.”
“They introduce bottles, grenades and knives into the vulvas of these women. In the case of pregnant women it is worse, they open their bellies and take out the fetus. They are facts (…) and it is very hard to tell these kinds of stories” , he has assured, although he has emphasized that these women “are no longer victims but survivors”. “They have turned the feeling of hopelessness into just the opposite,” she added.
Regarding the migratory flow caused by the war, she pointed out that it is “totally legitimate that there are women who decide to leave their country in search of international protection to live free of violence, calmly and in freedom.” “There are many reasons that lead people to leave. In this case, they are women who are mutilated, raped, forced to marry… There may be compelling reasons that lead them to leave (…), and these women move in search of of protection”, specified Adzuba, who has made an appeal to “consider how to welcome these people”.
The M23 has been accused since November 2021 of carrying out attacks against Army positions in the province of North Kivu despite the fact that the Congolese authorities and the M23 signed a peace agreement in December 2013 after fighting since 2012 with the Army, which had the support of United Nations troops.
Relations between the DRC and Rwanda have gone through moments of crisis since the massive arrival in the eastern DRC of Rwandan Hutus accused of having massacred the Tutsis during the Rwandan genocide of 1994. After a certain stage of diplomatic relaxation, the conflict gained intensity again in May, when the Congolese government summoned the Rwandan ambassador to denounce the country’s alleged support for the M23.
Rwanda, however, continues to deny that it is providing support to the M23, while the United Nations and the United States are convinced of the links between Rwanda and this organization, the direct heir of successive rebel movements rooted in the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
