Vol 3 (AAC) No 6 | CONGO-KINSHASACHINASOUTH KOREA More multibillion mining contracts for Kinshasa 22nd April 2010 President Kabila’s trip to Seoul yields another multibillion-dollar mining deal just as a midway review of China’s US$6 bn. contract is completed Five years after his first official visit, President Joseph Kabila returned to South Korea on 29-30 March. Two protocols were agreed. The first accord seeks to replicate China’s US$6...
Vol 51 No 8 | CONGO-KINSHASAANALYSIS Le scandale pétrolier 16th April 2010 The country now produces a paltry 25,000 barrels a day but the big international oil companies are lining up to buy their way into Congo-Kinshasa. Smaller companies have been locked in wrangles with each other and successive Kinshasa officials for several years. New blocks are likely to be offered in a licensing round that will open up new parts of Congo to exploration; competition for disputed blocks is heating up. But will the oil boom boost economic development or just repeat the confusion and corruption of the mining sector? President Joseph Kabila is blocking exploration contracts that were granted several years ago and the lack of his approval has left several companies hanging on in Kinshasa, hoping...
Vol 51 No 8 | CONGO-KINSHASA Contention and contenders 16th April 2010 In the Albertine Graben (Lake Albert, Lake Edward and land in between and around), the rivalry is international.
Vol 51 No 8 | CONGO-KINSHASA Contractual confusion 16th April 2010 The disputes about Congo-Kinshasa’s oil concessions, licences, claims and terms have grown so tangled that, we hear, President Joseph Kabila may ask Uganda for help with a review....
Vol 51 No 6 | UGANDACONGO-KINSHASA The next oil scramble 19th March 2010 A new battle for oil blocks has started in the troubled north-east after France’s Total announced that it was seeking acreage in the Lake Albert basin, in alliance...
Vol 3 (AAC) No 5 | CONGO-KINSHASAASIA How militias control the mines 15th March 2010 Politicians, businessmen, the army and rebels are all caught up in the illegal mining and smuggling of minerals destined for lucrative Asian markets Prominent Congolese businessmen with connections to rebel groups in the conflict-ridden North and South Kivu Provinces are largely responsible for the illegal export of quantities of tin and...
Vol 3 (AAC) No 5 | CONGO-KINSHASACHINA Victory for the Kinshasa vultures 15th March 2010 The execution of the US$6 billion ore-for-infrastructure deal originally signed in April 2008 between the Congolese state and Chinese companies China Railway Group and Sinohydro has suffered a...
Vol 3 (AAC) No 5 | CONGO-KINSHASAINDIA Monuc moves out 15th March 2010 The United Nations announced in early March that it would begin to withdraw its peacekeeping mission, the Mission des Nations Unies en République Démocratique du Congo (Monuc) from...
Vol 3 (AAC) No 5 | CONGO-KINSHASA Roger Busima Kataala 15th March 2010 Director General, Agence Congolaise des Travaux Grands, Congo-Kinshasa Roger Busima Kataala is the head of the Agence Congolaise des Travaux Grands (ACGT), the agency that supervises Chinese-led infrastructure construction. The administrator has become increasingly visible...
Vol 51 No 5 | CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE Sassou's reforms on trial 5th March 2010 The IMF and World Bank have given Sassou-Nguesso a clean bill of health but anti-corruption lobbyists diasgree The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative’s determination to tackle corruption in Congo-Brazzaville will be tested on 9 March. EITI directors will meet to consider upgrading their verdict on...