Democratic Republic of Congo

Africa’s wealth is being devoured by tyrants and vultures

31 July 2012

Citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo should be living in one of the world’s richest countries. Plunder and corruption condemns them to poverty ’Repayment’ of loans made to the corrupt Mobuto Sese Seko has proved an important means of draining the DRC’s wealth. Photograph: Remy De La Mauviniere/AP A surprise judgment was made last week against a vulture fund, FG Hemisphere, striking down its claim for $100m from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Keeping money out of the hands of (...)

FG Hemisphere vulture fund’s latest victory against the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). What is Belgium doing?

2 January 2011

Vulture funds continue to wreak havoc in the countries of the South. Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has to pay the price by losing a new lawsuit against the FG Hemisphere Hedge Fund before a court in Jersey. Unfortunately, this new wound was predictable. In fact, FG Hemisphere always uses the same method which is characteristic of Vulture funds. Like most Vulture funds FG Hemisphere has its bases in a tax haven (in Delaware, in the heart of the US) and in 2004 it purchased old (...)

The democratic republic of the Congo (DR Congo) after reaching the completion point

10 November 2010

The debt in the RD Congo has recently been reduced, from 13,704 to 2,931 billion US dollars, as a consequence of the RD Congo reaching the completion point at the conclusion of the HIPC (Heavily Indebted Poor Countries) initiative on 1 July 2010. The total reduction should be 12.3 billion; 11.1 billion as a result of the HIPC Initiative and 1.2 billion as a result of the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI). According to the Congolese government, this constitutes the most significant (...)

Congo: One Hundred Years of Colonialism, Dictatorship and War (1908 - 2008)

21 November 2008

Friends of the Congo/ Saturday, November 15, 2008 marked the 100-year anniversary of the removal of the Congo from King Leopold II of Belgium as his own personal property. Global outrage of the King’s brutal rule resulted in his losing the Congo treasure trove on November 15, 1908. Leopold II accumulated spectacular wealth for himself and the Belgian state during his 23-year dominion (1885 – 1908) over the Congo. During this period an estimated 10 million Congolese lost their lives while (...)

Millions of acres of African rainforest threatened as Congolese government moves to ‘legalise’ felling for timber

30 September 2008

Greenpeace International – Rainforest Foundation – Global Witness Press Release For Immediate Use 24 September 2008 A group of international NGO’s have today warned that millions of acres of rainforest could be at risk as the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) considers whether to legalise more than 150 timber felling contracts. The groups condemned the process used to review of the legality of the country’s entire logging industry as being fundamentally flawed. (...)

6th International Seminar on Debt and Law

19 October 2007

Auditing the debt Case studies of 4 countries : Ecuador, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, the Philippines Friday October 19 and Saturday October 20 from 9.30am to 5.30pm Venue : Congress room of the Belgian Senate, 21 rue de Louvain in Brussels

DRC: a demonstration of plunder and submission

11 July 2007

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a textbook case for those who wish to understand complex notions like the pillage of a country’s wealth, the intolerable loss of a State’s sovereignty, or the concept of odious debt. The manner in which the budget of 2007 was prepared and the orientations of the government led by Antoine Gizenga provide clear confirmation of what the Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt and many other social movements have been asserting for a number of (...)