FORGOTTEN: DRC’S DISPLACED MILLIONS

Today marks the 65th anniversary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC) independence, commemorating the end of Belgian colonial rule on 30 June 1960.

Yet, for approximately 7.3 million Congolese, today is just another day of displacement, forcefully driven from their homes due to a three-decade-long foreign-backed resource conflict, fuelled by greedy Western corporations and supported by complicit imperialists who use local proxies. Unfortunately, the world has largely ignored the Congolese people’s suffering.

In December 2023, African Stream's Erick Gavala visited a camp for displaced people in Kanyaruchinya village, Goma, located at the base of the Nyiragongo volcano, to speak with those affected.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that from January to November 2024, the war had displaced over 3 million Congolese, with 96 per cent occurring in the eastern region.

Continued……. Among the 658,000 newly displaced individuals in North and South Kivu provinces, women comprised approximately 380,000, and children under the age of five represented more than 100,000. In addition to the humanitarian crisis and conflict, some women shared experiences of abuse and r*pe.

As the war rages on, the world continues to turn a blind eye to the Congolese people's suffering. One possible reason for the silence from Western media is that affluent states benefit from the instability in the Congo. In January 2025, M23 rebels, backed by Rwanda and Uganda, seized control of vast swaths of the mineral-rich provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, including the provincial capitals of Goma and Bukavu. They now oversee the illegal mineral trade through Rwanda, earning about $800,000 each month, which fuels the greed of tech industries at the cost of impoverished Congolese.

Despite the DRC and Rwanda signing a US-brokered and Qatari-hosted peace deal on 27 June, the suffering of displaced Congolese continues, while the root causes of their troubles—exploitation by foreign-backed interests and complicity by the ruling elite—remain unaddressed.

Sources

https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/unicef-dr-congo-humanitarian-flash-report-2-upsurge-violence-north-and-south-kivu-24-january-2025

https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/democratic-republic-congo/democratic-republic-congo-internally-displaced-persons-and-returnees-april-2024

https://www.news24.com/world/africa/rebel-group-m23-hits-mining-jackpot-in-drc-generating-800-000-per-month-20250312

https://www.nrc.no/news/2025/february/eastern-dr-congo-hundreds-of-thousands-displaced-in-wave-of-extreme-violence

AFRICA IS NOT YOUR BATTLEFIELD

Foreign boots were back on African soil in April and May for African Lion 25, the largest US-led military exercise on the continent. It was in full swing across Morocco, Ghana, Senegal and Tunisia, with over 10,000 troops from more than 40 countries. 

And here's the shocker: Israel’s military is right in the mix, training on African land while actively oppressing Palestinians, occupying their land and subjugating them to a system of apartheid. Let that sink in. Meanwhile, Morocco, the primary host, is using this exercise to consolidate its control over Western Sahara, a territory whose people have fought for decades for independence. Algeria has refused to take part because to include Israel while Gaza is still burning is not ‘cooperation.’ 

This exercise isn’t just a military drill. It’s part of a larger noscript, one where Africa remains the chessboard, and global powers continue to play games with our borders, our people, and our sovereignty.

77-YEAR-OLD ASSATA SHAKUR NEW JERSEY'S #1 FUGITIVE

The New Jersey State Police recently issued its 2025 ‘Most Wanted’ list of fugitives. Headlining the group with a $2 million reward for information leading to her capture is Assata Shakur. However, at the age of 77, Shakur had long since received political asylum in Cuba, became a Cuban citizen, and earned a master's degree from the University of Havana. 

Just two months after US authorities shot and arrested Shakur on 2 May 1973, she wrote a letter noscriptd, ‘To My People.’ In it, she expresses her revolutionary stance on US imperialism.

Shakur’s letter remains as relevant today as when it was first written over 50 years ago.

Sources

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEmcCP7vWLM

https://sites.williams.edu/jjames/files/2019/05/FramingthePanter2009.pdf

http://assatashakur.org/mypeople.htm

WHY LUMUMBA WAS A TARGET

Africa’s problems are often twisted to justify prejudices against Africans - for example, that we elect corrupt leaders. On the day the Democratic Republic of the Congo celebrates its independence, it’s a good time to shine a light on the West’s reaction to a principled African leader looking to improve the lives of his people.

Patrice Lumumba was the first prime minister of the DRC. He is remembered as a symbol of anti-imperialism and African unity, who played a significant role in the transformation of the Congo from a colony of Belgium into an independent republic.

He remains one of the most enduring national heroes and pan-African icons. Malcom X called him ‘the greatest Black man who ever walked the African continent.’ Lumumba was a leading member of the Congolese independence movement. He entered the history books on 30 June 1960. That was the day that Belgian Congo - as it was then known - broke away from Belgian colonial rule.

Continued……. In the presence of Belgium’s King Baudouin, Lumumba accused the former colonial masters of treachery and forcing ‘humiliating slavery’ on the Congolese people. The speech caused fear among the Europeans, concerned that anti-White vengeance would be the main theme of Lumumba’s administration. Hence, they started plotting to assassinate him. This is why most historians believe Lumumba was a marked man from the moment he made this speech.

Less than 7 months after independence, in January 1961, he was arrested and murdered, with the full knowledge of the CIA and the Belgians. For the Congolese people, the events of 1960-61 represented yet another chapter of a long horror story, as the US-backed Joseph Mobutu, who had once sworn allegiance to Lumumba, would seize power and misrule the country for more than three decades.

Sources

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/10/17/patrice-lumumba-congo-washington-00121755

DECOLONISE M.I.T.: STUDENTS SPEAK OUT

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a new generation of student activists is forcing the storied institution to address its entanglements with various international systems of oppression, from its use of enslaved people to Cold War-era defence contracts and its recent partnerships with the Israeli arms industry.

In this video, we hear from an anonymous student who claims to be part of a group called 'Ethical Scientists.' They recently tore down a painting of Emma Savage Rogers (1824-1911), who enslaved Africans. Rogers was married to MIT founder William Barton Rogers (1804-82). The group replaced it with a photo of nurse, teacher and abolitionist Isabella Gibbons (circa 1836-90), an African whom Emma Savage Rogers owned.

Continued……The other photo they included was of 11-year-old Palestinian social media influencer Yaqeen Hammad (2013-25), k*lled in an Israeli drone strike on 23 May. The group is trying to make the connection between MIT's oppressive past and its current research that aids Israel's military.

Over several months, MIT students have organised walkouts, sit-ins, and teach-ins against the university's research partnerships with companies that are supplying weapons to Israel during its military onslaught in Gaza. These protests are part of a broader movement on US campuses, in which students are demanding that universities divest from entities that profit from military campaigns and occupations.

MIT has a close relationship with the US Department of Defense and multiple defence contractors, particularly through its Lincoln Laboratory. During the apartheid era, students demanded the university divest from South Africa. Today, students draw parallels between the institution's past complicity and its current role in supporting settler-colonial systems, like Israel's and the United States.' Students are not only demanding divestment from firms associated with military activities but redirecting funds to decolonial scholarship, reparative justice and siding with liberation movements.

Video credit: @j.anthony.depice (IG)

Sources

https://electronicintifada.net/content/how-research-mit-abets-israels-genocide-gaza/50250

https://cis.mit.edu/about/history

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/13/usuniversity-ties-to-weapons-contractors-under-scrutiny-amid-war-in-gaza#:~:text=The%20demonstration%20was%20part%20of%20an%20effort,that%20support%20its%20military%20campaign%20in%20Gaza.&text=%E2%80%9CThe%20only%20reason%20that%20students%20are%20protesting,in%20South%20Africa%2C%E2%80%9D%20Chapman%20told%20Al%20Jazeera.


https://news.mit.edu/2025/mit-lincoln-laboratory-workhorse-national-security-0415#:~:text=MIT%20Lincoln%20Laboratory%20is%20the%20DoD's%20largest,critical%20domains%20are%20air%20and%20missile%20defense.

https://www.ll.mit.edu/about/history#:~:text=Lincoln%20Laboratory%20was%20established%20in,for%20the%20Allied%20war%20effort.

https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/mit-students-campaign-divestment-apartheid-south-africa-1985-1991

https://fnl.mit.edu/november-december-2023/standing-together-against-hate-from-the-river-to-the-sea-from-gaza-to-mit

https://apnews.com/article/college-protests-israel-divestment-palestinians-3f37f96f7be8e1124f266842d9caa627

https://mondoweiss.net/2025/04/i-faced-censorship-and-attacks-at-mit-for-trying-to-teach-about-palestine-this-reflects-the-rising-fascism-in-higher-education


https://www.theelephant.info/analysis/2022/03/11/africa-and-its-diasporas-from-pan-africanism-to-developmentalism-to-transnationalism/#:~:text=Pan%2DAfricanism%20as%20an%20idea%2C%20philosophy%2C%20and%20movement,capitalist%20world%20spawned%20by%20enslavement%20and%20colonialism.

HOW WESTERN TECH INDUSTRY DESTABILISES DRC

Today marks 65 years since the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) gained independence from Belgian colonial rule on 30 June 1960.

The DRC has not known peace since 1885, when Belgium’s King Leopold II annexed it as his personal property. Known as the ‘Congo Free State’ until 1908, it served as a source of raw materials, like rubber, for the early 20th century’s booming automobile industry. Leopold’s harsh exploitation of the Congo reportedly led to around 10 million to 15 million deaths.

Fast forward to the 21st century, another industrial boom, this time in electric mobility and smart technologies, is driven by essential minerals from the DRC. These are resources that, if acquired and managed legally, could have turned the country into one of the wealthiest and most stable in the world.

Continued……In December 2023, African Stream’s Erick Gavala went to the DRC’s mineral-rich eastern region to understand how the tech industry is contributing to instability. Conflict minerals, illegally trafficked by rebel groups such as the Rwanda- and Uganda-backed M23, feed greedy Western corporations, which claim to make their products with conflict-free minerals despite clear evidence to the contrary.

Erick’s report reveals why the DRC remains impoverished despite possessing an estimated $24 trillion in untapped mineral resources. It accounts for nearly two-thirds of the world’s cobalt production, a crucial metal used in lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, smartphones, and laptops. It is also the second-largest source of coltan (Columbite-Tantalite), a vital source of tantalum used in capacitors for phones, computers, and other electronics. The DRC’s cassiterite is a primary source of tin, essential for soldering electronic components. Wolframite is the primary source of tungsten used in the vibrating components of phones and other electronic devices. 

The three-decade foreign-backed resource war has featured horrific s*xual and human rights abuses, k*lling at least 6 million people by 2010, with many more since. Moreover, the war has displaced over 7 million people.

Sources

https://www.csis.org/analysis/critical-minerals-fragile-peace-drc-rwanda-deal-and-cost-ignoring-root-causes

https://africanchildtrust.org.uk/the-democratic-republic-of-congo-and-the-paradox-of-plenty/

https://medium.com/@johnckamoga/the-natural-resource-curse-why-congos-riches-keep-it-poor-4badce9fc4cb

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/congo-rwanda-peace-deal/

https://scholars.indianastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=honorsp

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2024/10/why-is-the-democratic-republic-of-congo-wracked-by-conflict/

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/715618

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/06/1165056

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/06/1164981

https://www.unhcr.org/emergencies/dr-congo-emergency

https://www.nrc.no/news/2025/april/dr-congo-millions-facing-destitution-as-violence-forces-people-to-flee-multiple-times

https://www.caritas.org/2010/02/six-million-dead-in-congos-war/

https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/cobalt-reserves-top-3-countries#:~:text=1.,Democratic%20Republic%20of%20the%20Congo&text=The%20Democratic%20Republic%20of%20the%20Congo%20is%20the%20country%20with,battery%20metal%20in%20the%20ground.

https://atrocitieswatch.org/publications/king-leopold-of-belgium-in-congo/

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/belgian-king-establishes-congo-free-state/

https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/drc/overview

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK: A TROJAN HORSE

They call it the African Development Bank. But what if Africa’s financial future is being steered by a Trojan horse? Foreign powers block projects, sabotage leadership and shape policy to keep Africa dependent. The African Union faces the same trap: foreign money and foreign strings. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

WHEN GERMANY TURNED AFRICA INTO A LABORATORY

Colonial Germany’s genocide in Namibia, which saw at least 70-thousand innocent Nama and Ovaherero people killed, is slowly attracting long-denied attention. But the imperialist power also did other despicable things in its East African ‘possessions’ that are even less widely known about.

One of its most revered scientists - Robert Koch, who won a Nobel Prize for his work on tuberculosis - used Africans, kept in concentration-like conditions, as guinea pigs for trials of a dangerous experimental drug for sleeping sickness.

While some might put it all down to the ‘bad old past,’ as African Stream’s Clinton Nzala here explains, some things haven’t really changed.

Would you agree?

FROM BROTHERS IN BUTCHERY TO MORTAL FOES

They are the faces of Sudan's proxy-war. However, did you know that al-Burhan and Hemedti - before their power struggle devastated the nation - were ‘brothers in butchery’? African Stream’s @sannario_ breaks down their decades-long genocidal bromance.

Continued……. Sources

https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/horn-africa/sudan/two-years-sudans-war-spreading

https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5035295-uncertainty-surrounds-fate-burhan-hemedti-meeting-kampala

https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/el-burhan-freezes-rsf-bank-accounts-amidst-ongoing-clashes-in-sudan

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/hemedti-from-camel-herder-to-sudans-de-facto-ruler/1543961

https://menasolidaritynetwork.com/2025/06/03/six-years-since-the-2019-sudanese-massacres-the-war-on-revolution-continues/

https://carnegieendowment.org/middle-east/diwan/2021/10/the-military-has-taken-power-in-sudan-and-dissolved-its-transitional-government?lang=en

https://www.clingendael.org/publication/military-coup-betrays-sudans-revolution

https://www.altaghyeer.info/en/2021/10/20/together-against-al-burhan-and-hemedtis-coup/

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/sudans-burhan-declares-state-emergency-dissolves-government-2021-10-25/

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2308416/middle-east

https://www.sudaninthenews.com/framework-agreement/framework-agreement-power-struggle-military

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/sudans-army-warns-rsf-movements-khartoum-other-cities-2023-04-13/

https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/power-struggle-sudan

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/15/sudan-in-worlds-largest-humanitarian-crisis-after-two-years-of-civil-war

WAS THERE A PLOT TO WIPE OUT BLACK S. AFRICANS WITH HIV?

For decades, the Southern African region has been grappling with a severe HIV/AIDS epidemic, a crisis of urgent proportions. Most of the countries in the region have HIV prevalence rates of over 10% - versus a global prevalence rate of 0.8%. For example, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says 18.8% of South Africans between the ages of 15 and 49 were HIV positive as of 2024. The figure for neighbouring Eswatini is even worse - at 25.9%.

For a long time, scientists and policymakers have been baffled as to why the region is more affected by the virus than other parts of the world. Several theories have emerged regarding the potential causes of this high prevalence rate. One of the most shocking - seen by some as a conspiracy - is the claim that White supremacist forces deliberately spread HIV among Black South Africans during the apartheid era, a theory that is as shocking as it is controversial.

Continued……In this video, African Stream’s Clinton Nzala takes a closer look at this jaw-dropping allegation.

Sources

https://newafricanmagazine.com/18285/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/27/south-african-intelligence-officers-spread-aids-black-communities
https://www.unodc.org/newsletter/en/perspectives/no02/page005.html#:~:text=With%20a%20national%20HIV%20prevalence,:%20Zapiro/Mail%20and%20Guardian.

AFRIQUIZ LIVE ON IG 1 JULY 2025
3 PM E.A.T.

As we say goodbye to African Stream, we invite you to join us for one last ride. As a token of our appreciation for your loyalty to the pan-African revolution - your love, support and commitment to our content - we're hosting a special live edition of Afriquiz, where we’ll be giving away African Stream t-shirts! If you want a chance to win by showing off your knowledge about our beloved Africa, join us live via Instagram on 1 July 2025 at 3:00 pm E.A.T

BURKINA LESSONS: SANKARA, COMPAORÉ AND TRAORÉ

Thomas Sankara dreamed of an Africa that stood tall, unbent and un-bought. A Burkina Faso free from neocolonial chains, where land belonged to the people, where women were leaders, where the West didn’t dictate our destiny. He dared to speak the truth - and for that, he was murdered.

By whom? Not just by imperialism. But by betrayal from within.

Blaise Compaoré, Sankara’s closest comrade, turned the revolution into a funeral. He opened the door wide to French influence, handed the economy to foreign interests and ruled for 27 years with the backing of the same powers Sankara had defied. That’s how imperialism survives - not just through bombs, but through Black faces serving White interests.

But the people never forgot. In 2014, it was ordinary Burkinabe who brought down Compaoré. They rose up. They set fire to a corrupt legacy. And now, a new chapter has begun, led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré: young, a solider, charismatic, anti-imperialist.

Continued……. Sound familiar? Traoré has expelled foreign troops, challenged the IMF model and called out neocolonial meddling for what it is. He speaks Sankara’s language not just in words, but in actions. And yet, history has taught us to be cautious. Because allies can be co-opted. And revolutions can be stolen, again.

That’s why this story isn’t just about Sankara, Compaoré or Traoré. It’s about us. Because the dream Sankara died for won’t survive on hope alone. It needs vigilance. It needs pressure from below. And it needs a united people who understand that Africa’s enemies don’t always wear uniforms: sometimes they wear suits, smile wide and call themselves ‘partners.’

Sources

https://www.sierraeyemagazine.com/is-captain-ibrahim-traore-burkina-fasos-next-sankara/

https://mronline.org/2025/05/09/the-rising-star-of-cpt-ibrahim-traore-burkina-fasos-spirit-of-sankara/


https://noirpress.org/the-sankara-blueprint-how-we-build-on-the-traore-movement/


https://medium.com/@ghanaba.amos/blaise-compaor%C3%A9-a-betrayal-forged-in-greed-and-foreign-interference-13d9ff36a4ff

https://panafricanreview.com/sankara-campaore-friendship-and-trust-in-the-life-of-the-african-christian-part-i/

UGANDAN JEWS DENIED ISRAELI CITIZENSHIP

Did you know that Uganda is home to an African Jewish community (the Abayudaya) that has been denied Israeli citizenship, primarily due to its Interior Ministry’s r*cism? 

The Abayudaya, meaning ‘People of Judah’ in Luganda, is a community that traces its origins to Semei Kakungulu (1869-1928), a prominent military leader in the early 20th century. Initially converted to Christianity by British missionaries, Kakungulu became disillusioned with the British after they failed to make him king of territories he had helped them conquer. He then embarked on a deeper study of the Bible, leading him to believe that only the Old Testament was true. 

Continued…….. Out of antisemitism, British colonial authorities had designated Uganda as a potential home for unwanted Jews from Eastern Europe. In 1903, Z*onist leader Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) met with Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914), the British colonial secretary of state, and other senior officials who agreed in principle to the idea of settling European Jews in East Africa. They also considered neighbouring Kenya a suitable place for resettlement, but British settlers strongly opposed the plan, so it did not come to fruition.

In 1913, Kakungulu declared his community to be Jewish and urged his followers to observe the laws of the Hebrew Bible strictly. With time, the Abayudaya deepened their practice of Judaism, learning customary blessings, observing Kashrut (dietary laws), and celebrating Shabbat and holidays. In 2002, many Abayudaya underwent formal conversions overseen by US Conservative rabbis, further solidifying their Jewish identity.

While the Jewish Agency for Israel formally recognised the Abayudaya as a ‘recognised Jewish community’ in 2009 and reaffirmed this status in 2016, Israel's Interior Ministry has often taken a different stance, as the ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate usually influences it.

However, white South African converts to Judaism are more easily granted citizenship, unlike Black converts. 

Video credit: @lumumba.amin / TikTok

Sources

https://israeled.org/uganda-proposal/

https://www.newvision.co.ug/news/1428141/britain-gifted-uganda-creation-israel-territory

https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/story/shall-state-israel-recognize-abayudaya-jews-uganda-summary-hearing-israels-high-court-justice


https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-south-africa-home-white-colonialists

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2021-09-30/ty-article/.highlight/cleansed-by-the-torah-why-these-afrikaners-became-jews-and-moved-to-israel/0000017f-e2bb-d9aa-afff-fbfb151f0000

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/feb/28/ethiopian-women-given-contraceptives-israel

https://www.timesofisrael.com/ugandan-jews-get-official-recognition-from-jewish-agency/