WEST NOT BYSTANDERS IN DRC

Recent protests in Kinshasa have targeted Western embassies, including those of France and the US, as demonstrators accuse these foreign powers of complicity in the three-decade-long minerals conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that counts as the deadliest since World War II, according to many sources including US-based and UN-associated NGO World Without Genocide.

While Western governments have issued mild condemnations of Rwanda’s involvement, including token sanctions that leave senior Rwandan leadership untouched, their corporations continue to benefit from the DRC’s mineral wealth.

As NGO Focus Congo’s Pappy Orion (@pappyorion of @focuscongo/@focuscongo_drc) puts it, the European Union’s financial support for Rwanda, extending as far as funding Rwandan troops in Mozambique, where French oil giant TotalEnergies has a $20 billion investment, suggests deeper strategic motives.

Continued……He also argued that with China and Russia increasing their presence in Africa, Western powers are prolonging the conflict under the guise of later stepping in as peacemakers.

The DRC has seen little peace since Europeans carved up Africa and handed it to Belgian King Leopold II, who killed as many as 15 million people and enslaved our people to produce rubber. A glimmer of hope at independence was whiffed out with the assassination of Pan-African icon Patrice Lumumba (1925-61) at the hands of Belgian-, UK- and US-backed Congolese forces. The fall of the dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko (1930-97), provided no reprieve, as the minerals conflict k*lled more than 6 million people by 2010 and internally displaced over 7 million.

Sources
https://x.com/LarryMadowo/status/1884219097887695006

Leopold in Congo
https://x.com/LarryMadowo/status/1884219097887695006

Western firms profiting off blood minerals
https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-appeals-court-dismisses-child-labor-case-against-tech-companies-2024-03-05/

Total Rwanda deal
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/07/11/after-the-success-of-its-army-in-mozambique-rwanda-expects-economic-rewards_6049404_4.html

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

DRC killed and displaced since Rwanda genocide
https://africacenter.org/spotlight/drc-conflict-new-phase

Deadliest conflict
https://worldwithoutgenocide.org/genocides-and-conflicts/congo

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

700,000 flee since January 2025
https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/02/1160486

Rwanda in Mozambique
https://ieefa.org/resources/list-reasons-not-finance-totalenergies-mozambique-lng-project-grows

Displacements
https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/iom-democratic-republic-congo-internal-displacement-overview-september-2024 (click on PDF)

US on Rwanda
https://www.state.gov/sanctioning-drivers-of-violence-in-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo

EU Parliament on Rwanda
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20250206IPR26752/meps-want-to-suspend-eu-rwanda-deal-on-critical-raw-materials

UK on Rwanda
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/25/uk-suspends-aid-to-rwanda-over-alleged-support-for-drc-rebels

King Leopold's murder rate
https://congoinconversation.fondationcarmignac.com/en/reportages/protesting-belgium-s-colonial-legacy-in-congo-pamela-tulizo

WHY MUSK IS WRONG TO EQUATE DEI WITH LOWER STANDARDS

Elon Musk thinks diversity in medicine is dangerous. Science says otherwise. In an interview with Don Lemon last year, the tech billionaire claimed that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts risk “lowering standards” - with potentially fatal consequences.

In this clip, an American Board of Obstetrics & Gynecology-certified surgeon begs to differ, explaining why Musk’s argument is flawed. Dr Ruthie (i.am.dr.ruthie) points out that DEI efforts focus on recruiting and retaining diverse physicians because research has shown this directly improves outcomes for patients.

Her argument aligns with findings from a major 2023 US-wide study published in JAMA Network Open (part of The Journal of the American Medical Association).

Continued…….. This examined the impact of physician diversity on public health. The study found that Black communities with a higher share of Black primary care physicians experience increased life expectancy and reduced racial disparities in mortality rates. Interestingly, these benefits extend even to Black patients who never directly visit a Black doctor, suggesting broader systemic advantages. While the study’s authors note that further research is needed to establish any kind of causation (rather than mere correlation), the evidence strongly points to the conclusion that diversity in medicine benefits everyone.

So if diversity demonstrably improves patient outcomes, how exactly does that “lower standards,” @elonmusk?

video credit: Don Lemon https://youtu.be/hhsfjBpKiTw?si=RhWKPvsOZQGLYVd4

and Dr. Ruthie https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFGMfsdvTyq/?igsh=MTljbjZoem1leWhoYw==
Y

Sources
https://www.statnews.com/2023/04/14/black-doctors-primary-care-life-expectancy-mortality/
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/study-finds-black-people-live-longer-in-places-with-more-black-doctors

Sources

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/26/global-witness-congo-conflict-minerals

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2024-09-04/debates/E36EC701-65B9-4730-9CB3-AA09FF81BCDA/SecurityInTheDemocraticRepublicOfTheCongo

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/mar/15/sunak-stays-silent-on-rwandas-role-in-drc-war-crimes-to-save-uks-migrant-deal

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-rwanda-development-partnership-summary/9dba78ce-012e-417e-9ff3-2f31b5cf5fac

https://medium.com/%40david.himbara_27884/british-politicians-hopelessly-smitten-with-the-rwandan-dictator-paul-kagame-b0ee18e63a05

https://medium.com/%40david.himbara_27884/kagames-british-propagandist-mitchell-earns-us-55-802-annually-from-rwanda-as-senior-advisor-on-fa97c7ee1e5c

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/andrew-mitchell-rwanda-war-q82lp737t

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/jan/18/rwanda.tonyblair

GAZA’S FATE IN EGYPT’S HANDS?

The plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza is unfolding, with immense pressure on Egypt to accept a US proposal that would relocate about 2 million Palestinians. This plan could effectively end the dream of Palestinian statehood, weaken Palestinian resistance, and bring Israel closer to its settler-colonial goal of establishing ‘Greater Israel,’ stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates. 

However, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has rejected the idea, fearing domestic unrest among the ardently pro-Palestine population. Plus, if Palestinian resistance fighters wind up as refugees in Egypt, Sisi has pointed out Israel could use that as a reason for a pre-emptive military campaign that could occupy Egypt, harkening back to Israel’s past occupations of Sinai.

Egypt’s alliance with the US came after acknowledging Israel’s existence in 1980, already delivering at least $84 billion in US aid despite Egypt’s human rights violations. 

Continued….. The question remains: Will Egypt succumb to US pressure and accept the relocation plan, or will it stand firm, risking the wrath of imperial forces?

African Stream journalist Wambura Mwai (@mwaibrenda on IG) takes a look.

Sources

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/14/trumps-gaza-takeover-plan-puts-egypt-in-a-tough-spot

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy4m3wx9w04o

https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2025/feb/13/trump-doubles-down-on-plan-to-empty-gaza-this-is-what-he-has-said-and-whats-at-stake

https://themedialine.org/headlines/egypt-rejects-trumps-gaza-plan-warns-of-regional-fallout

https://www.newarab.com/news/what-could-egypts-alternative-trumps-gaza-plan-include

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-spearheads-arab-scramble-alternative-trumps-gaza-plan-2025-02-14

https://abcnews.go.com/International/trumps-threats-pull-aid-egypt-jordan-accept-palestinians/story?id=118757291

EPISODE 4: BEFORE ROSA PARKS, THERE WAS CLAUDETTE COLVIN

On this day 70 years ago, 2 March 1955, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat to a white woman. Her courageous act of defiance led to her arrest nine months before Rosa Parks’ (1913-2005) infamous civil disobedience, igniting the flame for a legal battle that would ultimately dismantle racist bus segregation in the United States.

In this episode of ‘Decolonised Minds,’ we explore the now 85-year-old’s story.

Despite her pivotal role, the public largely forgot Colvin’s role, perhaps buried under the weight of time and overshadowed by more widely recognised figures of the US Civil Rights Movement. Yet, her bravery as a teenager helped lay the groundwork for the historic Montgomery bus boycott and a Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation on public buses unconstitutional.

Her story is a powerful testament to the importance of every voice—no matter how young or marginalised—in the fight for justice.

RAMAPHOSA SERVES WHITE ELITES - MALEMA

Accusations and counter-accusations of being apartheid-era agents, spies or collaborators have flown around the South African political landscape for decades. One of those who frequently faces these allegations is the country’s current president, Cyril Ramaphosa. Ramaphosa’s opponents claim that he was planted in the country’s liberation movement in the 1980s by the White elite to protect their economic interests in a future Black-led government after the fall of apartheid.

In this February 2024 clip, Economic Freedom Fighters party leader Julius Malema adds his voice to those who allege that Ramaphosa is a sellout. According to Malema, Ramaphosa was a project of the Oppenheimer and Menell families, rich White South Africans that have owned and controlled a vast segment of the country’s economy, especially the mining sector, for decades.

Continued……Malema asks how Ramaphosa, who has never been a mine worker, set up and rose to the top of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), a powerful union and a strong ally of the African National Congress (ANC) in the 1980s. He concludes that Ramaphosa’s rise was a result a backroom deals with the Oppenheimers and other powerful White South African capitalists. He also accuses Ramaphosa of bringing these businessmen into the inner circle of Nelson Mandela, the country’s first post-apartheid leader, hence compromising him as well.

While no solid evidence has been provided to back the accusations against Ramaphosa, his meteoric rise from an activist to a businessman worth more than $450 million, according to Forbes, will always raise questions and speculations.

Credit: Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF)

Sources

https://www.forbes.com/profile/cyril-ramaphosa/
https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/south-africa/2019-02-14-cyril-denies-lekotas-claims-of-selling-out-comrades-during-apartheid/

This week’s proverb is a reminder that your actions are what define you the most. Think of Kenya posing as regional peace broker while giving a platform to the genocidal Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group as it unveiled plans to carve up Sudan.

Hear Us Roar: https://news.1rj.ru/str/AfricanStream