US/EU 'Critical Minerals' Project Displaces Thousands in DR Congo
The US and EU are backing a multi-billion dollar 'Lobito Corridor' project to upgrade railway lines in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola, ostensibly for 'development.' The Guardian reports that this initiative, driven by a global race for copper and cobalt, risks displacing up to 6,500 people and demolishing 1,200 buildings, according to Global Witness. One might commend the
transparency, were it not for the historical echoes. This isn't about 'critical minerals' for a 'green transition'; it's critical plunder for the same old empire. From Belgian King Leopold II's rubber atrocities to today's cobalt mines, the DRC's wealth has always been viewed as a Western resource to be extracted, regardless of the human cost. The pattern remains eerily consistent: Western
'investment' and 'development' always seem to coincide with the displacement of local populations and the extraction of vast wealth, leaving little for the people who actually live there.