Via The Economist, commentary on the DRC’s latest mineral offer to the U.S.:

At the bar in Fungurume, in the Congolese copper belt, the drinkers were unimpressed with the Chinese lanterns. The decorations had been donated by representatives of the Tenke Fungurume Mine (TFM), one of the largest copper-cobalt mines in the world. A Chinese firm had bought it from an American miner in 2016. As we drank Primus beer and chomped peanuts the off-duty miners became more open about their views of the new owners. “We loved the Americans,” one said. “We are fed up with the Chinese,” whom he claimed treated them worse

Over the past few days I have been wondering what my drinking partners from a few years ago might have made of the apparent attempt by Congolese politicians to flog their country’s mineral wealth in exchange for American help in the conflict that is burning in the east of Congo. Last month an American lobbyist claiming to represent a Congolese senator sent a letter to Marco Rubio, America’s secretary of state, offering a “strategic alliance” that would include “Granting US companies extraction and export rights”. 

The State Department says it is “open to discussing partnerships in this sector that are aligned with the Trump administration’s America First agenda”. Meanwhile Massad Boulos, Tiffany Trump’s father-in-law, is reportedly going to be the new American envoy to the Great Lakes. He will bring his experience as a truck dealer in Nigeria to one of the most complex regions in the world.

The saga is revealing on several levels. The first is the ludicrously haphazard way in which business and diplomacy is done in Congo. The senator on whose behalf the letter is written is a minor political player, probably trying to win favour in Kinshasa. His is just one of several disjointed initiatives emanating from the Congolese capital, where even very powerful people have a limited understanding of the complexity of selling off your natural resources in exchange for armed support. Congo has in the past floated the idea to American officials that America might take back control of TFM, without seemingly appreciating that this would be a tricky thing to pull off. Sadly this is the modus operandi of an elite for whom finding willing foreigners to share spoils with has been the way of getting ahead for decades. 

The second is that it suggests how African countries might be adapting to Trump 2.0. Some Congolese have clearly noted the way in which the American president has tied aid for Ukraine to a critical-minerals deal. Expect other African elites to do the same, especially now that the pausing of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in America may make it easier to do business in risky places. 

Third, the saga highlights Congo’s predicament in the war in the east. Congo has effectively lost control of much of that region and Rwanda is in the ascendancy. A third Congo War looms. The offer to America is a desperate act by an increasingly desperate government.