TIG Post

Tag: Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

  • Glencore to pay $180 million to settle DRC corruption claims

    The commodities firm reached an agreement regarding bribery allegations that spanned from 2007 to 2018.

    Glencore has agreed to pay $180 million to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to settle corruption allegations, the latest payment in a string of graft cases it has faced around the world.

    The Anglo-Swiss mining company announced on Monday that the agreement with DRC covers “all present and future claims arising from any alleged acts of corruption” committed by the Glencore Group between 2007 and 2018.

    It comes months after Glencore announced settlements with authorities in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Brazil totaling $1.5 billion to resolve all allegations of corruption and market manipulation.

    The US Justice Department said in May that Glencore paid more than $100m to intermediaries over 10 years, “intending that a significant portion of these payments would be used to pay bribes to officials” in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Brazil, Venezuela and Congo.

    In DRC, Glencore acknowledged that it paid $27.5m to third parties with the goal that a portion be used to bribe Congolese officials to secure improper business advantages, according to the Justice Department.

    “Glencore is a long-standing investor in the DRC and is pleased to have reached this Agreement to address the consequences of its past conduct,” Chairman Kalidas Madhavpeddi said in a statement on Monday.

    The company “looks forward to continuing to work with the DRC authorities and other stakeholders to facilitate good governance and ethical business practices in the country,” he added.

    Last month, a British court ordered Glencore to pay more than 280 million pounds ($341m) for using bribes to bolster its oil profits in five African countries.

    It pleaded guilty in June after an investigation launched by the United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office in 2019 found it paid bribes worth a combined $29m to gain access to oil in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and South Sudan.

  • East African Community has announced peace talks for eastern DRC

    The announcement came as Congolese troops clashed once more with the M23 in the volatile east, north of Goma.

    East African leaders announced peace talks on Sunday in an effort to stabilise the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where M23 rebels clashed with troops just north of Goma over the weekend.

    The seven-nation East African Community (EAC) announced a “peace dialogue” on eastern DRC on November 21 in Nairobi, Kenya.

    Officials said the announcement came as Congolese troops clashed again with the M23 north of the volatile region’s main city Goma.

    Deadly clashes lasted until Sunday night at Kibumba, another settlement about 20km from Goma, according to local residents and security officials.

    Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb reporting from the region, said Congolese government forces, repelled M23’s attack on the town of Cuba with more than a day of heavy fighting before pushing them.

    “The Congolese army North Congress army, says that they’re fighting soldiers from Rwanda and Uganda. The rebel group is widely understood to be a proxy of Rwanda, although Rwanda denies it. And so, people have fled…to try and get away from the fighting.”

    “Meanwhile, community leaders on the other side of the frontline have told us that about 60,000 people are stuck behind the front line in the territory held by the M23 rebel group and that they want a humanitarian corridor to be created so they can leave that area before the fighting gets closer to them,” Webb said.

    M23 rebels have recently surged across the DRC’s North Kivu province, winning a string of victories against the army and capturing swaths of territory.

    On Saturday, the group accused the Congolese army of retaliating with “barbarian bombings” – killing 15 civilians, including two children. Al Jazeera was unable to independently confirm the death toll.

    The latest violence comes one day after Kenyan troops were deployed to eastern DRC, as part of a peacekeeping operation from the EAC bloc.

    A mostly Congolese Tutsi group, the M23 first leapt to prominence in 2012 when it briefly captured Goma before being driven out and going underground.

    The group re-emerged in late 2021, taking up arms again on claims that the DRC had failed to honour a promise to integrate them into the army, among other grievances.

    The M23’s resurgence has cratered relations between the DRC and its smaller neighbour Rwanda, which Kinshasa accuses of backing the militia.

    Despite official denials from Kigali, an unpublished report for the United Nations seen by AFP in August pointed to Rwandan involvement with the M23.

    Kinshasa expelled Rwanda’s ambassador at the end of last month, as the M23 captured more territory, while also recalling its envoy from Kigali.

    The ratcheting tensions have spurred a bout of diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis.

    Angolan President Joao Lourenco met Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi in Kinshasa on Saturday, for example, after visiting Rwanda the previous day.

    On Sunday, Kenya’s ex-President Uhuru Kenyatta, the EAC’s mediator for the situation, was also due in Kinshasa for talks.

    The EAC on Sunday said it would hold talks aimed at bringing peace to eastern DRC in Nairobi this month. But it did not specify stakeholders in the talks nor how long they were scheduled to last.

    The announcement comes just days after Kenyan troops began to arrive in Goma over the weekend as part of a regional peacekeeping force established by the EAC in April.

    Kenya’s Parliament approved the deployment of about 900 soldiers for an initial period of six months. While the force will be under Kenyan command, its total size and scope remain unclear.

    In August, Burundi also sent troops to join the regional force in DRC.

    Earlier this month, the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC has withdrawn troops from the eastern military base of Rumangabo, ceding ground in the battle against the M23.

  • Kenya has sent hundreds of troops to join a regional force in eastern DRC

    President Ruto has dispatched over 900 military personnel to combat armed groups in eastern DRC.Kenyan President William Ruto has announced that his country will send over 900 military personnel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to join a new regional force tasked with attempting to defuse deadly tensions fueled by armed groups.

    Ruto on Wednesday called the mission “necessary and urgent” for regional security and said he and the DRC’s president had agreed on how Kenyan forces would work with Congolese and other forces on disarming rebels and peacekeeping in the country’s troubled east.

    The Kenyan forces will be based in Goma, eastern DRC’s largest city. The East African Community regional force, agreed upon by heads of state in June and led by a Kenyan commander, also has two battalions from Uganda, two from Burundi, and one from South Sudan.

    Nairobi made its troop commitment a day after angry crowds set fire to United Nations vehicles in Goma as frustrations mount over the advance of M23 rebels and the deteriorating security situation in the eastern DRC.

    Violence by armed groups has led to a diplomatic crisis between the DRC and neighboring Rwanda. The DRC has accused Rwanda of supporting the rebels, which Rwanda denies. Meanwhile, it has accused the DRC of backing another rebel group hostile to Rwanda.

    In October, Kinshasa expelled Rwanda’s ambassador to the DRC.

    The UN vehicles were targeted in Goma over false rumors that the peacekeeping mission known as MONUSCO had transported rebels, adding to the dissatisfaction many people in eastern DRC have towards the troops.

    “Because of these rebels, we have fled our homes in Rugari, Kibumba,” protester Kasereka Munyafura said, standing next to a truck on fire. “That is why we are angry, and we have just burnt the vehicles of MONUSCO because it makes us suffer.”

    Earlier on Tuesday, the UN peacekeeping mission had announced a “strategic and tactical withdrawal” from embattled Rumangabo. The M23 rebels have been trying to advance on the town, where a military base is located.

    The M23 rose to prominence more than a decade ago when its fighters seized Goma, which sits along the border with Rwanda. After a peace deal, many of the M23′s fighters were integrated into the national military.

    The group took up arms again in November last year, saying the government had failed to live up to its promises. Over the weekend, the rebels doubled the territory they hold, seizing control of two major towns.