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Blinken's arrival coincides with US award of $23.75 million for elections
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It was on Tuesday August 9 that the American Secretary of State Antony Blinken set foot on Congolese soil, coming from South Africa before going to Rwanda.
The arrival in Kinshasa of Antony Blinken coincides with the granting by the United States to the DRC of 23.75 million US dollars in support of the elections.
A press release from the United States Department of State informs that "the United States is providing $23.75 million to support the elections in the DRC, in particular to strengthen transparency and electoral administration, improve civic and electoral education, give people – including women and youth – the means to participate meaningfully in elections and help marginalized communities understand and access political processes.
In July, USAID and the state announced $2 million and $1 million, respectively, to fund international and domestic election observation.”
The statement from the US State Department insists on the holding of transparent, credible and inclusive elections.
In Kinshasa, Antony Blinken defends the territorial integrity of the DRC
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After his stay in South Africa, Antony Blinken arrived in the DRC on Tuesday August 9 at the end of the afternoon.
The head of American diplomacy exchanged in stride with President Félix Tshisekedi on several subjects including that of the tensions between Kinshasa and Kigali, against the backdrop of the activism of the rebel group M23 in the east of the country.
The two men also spoke at length about the oil blocks recently auctioned by the Congolese government.
Without openly condemning Kigali, which the Congolese government and United Nations experts accuse of supporting the M23, the American Secretary of State shared his country's concerns:
"We are concerned by this United Nations report which indicates that the Rwanda supported the M23.
We call on each party in this region to be able to stop all support for M23, all support for all other non-state armed groups.
Without openly speaking of aggression, he spoke out in favor of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the DRC and supported the diplomatic efforts deployed by Angola and Kenya for de-escalation between Kinshasa and Kigali:
“We are going to invest in order to protect civilians.
We therefore want to endorse the cooperation that the DRC must carry out with its neighbours. This is what I will point out when I go to see the other leaders of this sub-region”.
The other major subject of the exchanges was the question of oil and gas blocks auctioned by the DRC, some of which are located in sensitive and/or protected areas.
Antony Blinken announced the establishment of a working group that will look into this issue.
“Some of its resources are irreplaceable, that we cannot damage them. On the other hand, we must be reassured that the necessary support can be granted to the DRC to preserve the forests that the country abounds in and to create opportunities for the Congolese population,” he said.
This Wednesday, the American Secretary of State will meet other personalities including members of civil society.
mediacongo
What about the court made to the DRC?
Who returns after having let go, does not set conditions!
Before the 3rd United States / Africa summit scheduled for December 2022, Washington is deploying its various teams on the African ground as if to recall the troops.
With the war in Ukraine - for which it assumes a huge share of responsibility - and the diplomatic crisis with China following Ms. Nancy Pelosi's brief stay in Taiwan, the American administration intends to impose Pax Americana on the world.
The truth is that they are returning to the scene of the "crime of abandonment" perpetrated on several formerly Third World countries, according to the criteria dictated at the time of the Cold War...
Among these countries, one suspects, the Democratic Republic of Congo, neglected from 1990 by its great Western friends, so much so that over the past 30 years, the latter have deliberately limited cooperation to humanitarianism, knowing perfectly well that it has never, but never contributed to the development of a State.
Thus, for three decades, they operated their embassies just for figuration and to dissuade their economic operators from reinvesting or investing in large-scale production, which generates secure jobs and budgetary revenues.
They prescribed to the sick Congo a homeopathic dose treatment leading rather to a slow but sure death than to curing the patient.
At least, among the few countries in the world to have acted like the Good Samaritan of the Bible, we can count India, Japan, China and Australia.
These countries maintained a beneficial cooperation while the Americans, Belgians, French, Germans, etc. left the DRC groggy.
Would they have wanted to punish successive heads of state in this country who refused to obey injunctions? Fake !
Because if his successors at one time or another "rebelled", Felix Tshisekedi showed good dispositions towards them without being encouraged.
It is therefore an irrational option on their part since the States or the regimes are less the officials than the populations.
To declare, to guarantee as a priority the security of the Congolese populations and to deprive them at the same time of the first of the rights, namely productive work, proceeds from both the abnormal and the amoral.
The image that can be taken is that of the bread found on the bedside of a sick person.
Throw it in the trash and condition its replacement on respect for human rights, the electoral process, good governance, etc. while the patient is starving is no more, no less than a crime.
In this case, it is worse when we know that we have abandoned the patient to his fate for thirty years.
This bread resembles the investments made by countries like India, Japan, China, Australia, etc. in hard times for the Congolese while European and American friends not only suspended theirs, but also engaged in acts of disinvestment!
However, the Congolese retain from the Judeo-Christian culture in which they formed the morality which promotes the adage (and wisdom):
"One in your hand is better than two, you will have it".
The Congolese have a sense of gratitude towards those who do him good.
mediacongo
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