The New Scramble for Africa, Same Old Playbook
One might wonder why the US, purportedly so concerned with human rights and fair trade, only seems to 'back' ventures in resource-rich nations when confronting a geopolitical rival. It’s a pattern as old as empires themselves. The core of the operation, Mercuria Energy Group Ltd., is a Swiss-based multinational commodity trading company, not exactly a beacon of altruistic development. FIRST
INSTANCE: The Dawn of Resource Imperialism The quest for Congolese resources began in earnest with King Leopold II of Belgium in the late 19th century. From 1885 to 1908 , his personal rule over what was then the Congo Free State led to the deaths of an estimated 10 million Congolese through forced labor and atrocities for rubber and ivory extraction. This era established the template: vast
natural wealth, external powers vying for control, and negligible benefit for the local population. REPETITIONS: Cold War, Proxy Wars, and 'Stabilization' 1960: Patrice Lumumba, the DRC's first democratically elected prime minister, sought to nationalize the country's mineral wealth. He was assassinated with documented involvement from Belgium and the CIA just months after independence. This paved
the way for the kleptocratic Mobutu Sese Seko, who, despite enriching himself immensely, remained a US ally for decades, ensuring Western access to copper, cobalt, and uranium. ( Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume XX, Congo Crisis ) 1990s-2000s: The so-called 'Africa's World War' in the DRC saw multiple neighboring countries, often backed by various Western and Eastern