Fall of Congolese City Hits International Business

The capture of Goma by the M23 rebel group presents difficulties for businesses as the rebels strengthen their financial resources, including the control of mineral trade, writes Ben Payton for This is Africa.

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Artisanal diamond miners at work.

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  • gloing21
    Nov 22 2012, 22:38

    This post was deleted because it contravenes AllAfrica's commenting guidelines.

  • musisibosco49
    Nov 22 2012, 08:55

    Why is everybody saying that Rwanda backed the rebels but there is no one who is saying the whole world backed the Kinshansa army. Can you imagine that a few months ago the rebel numbers were very thin on the ground and the country that is supporting them is indeed a very tiny country which is even invisible on the world map are the ones routing out the congolese army together with their UN backers. Now can't we really be realistic and make a balance sheet. On one hand we have M23 and tiny Rwanda(very poor in mineral resource and with only 10 million people) and Fardc( congolese government forces)of Congo Kinshansa( a government rich in resources with a population of 80 million people and the size of the entire western Europe)being backed by the entire world which is represented by UN under munusco; the world press, the civil society especially human rights groups. these two sides engage in battle for only five days and the M23 wins the war.! Okay for arguments sake even if Rwanda was backing the rebels what prevented the Kinshansha government with all the international support it enjoys fall to beat the rebels? this means there is a very serious problem in Kinshasa government and it doe not deserve to be called a government since it has failed in its first mandate of protecting its people and their property and also defend the territorial sovereignty of the country. As i conclude let me pose a question. Why is the international community and the press continue to refer to M23 as the Rwanda backed rebels and not refer to Syrian rebels as westerned backed rebels or the Arab world backed rebels of Mali. All these others are called by their names of the country they are fighting from but the M23 are called the Rwanda backed rebels when everyone knows that these are former soldiers of the DRC government forces. So because of their military superiority over the congolose army then it is not them fighting but it's Rwanda fighting. Just accept the M23 are a strong force which is fighting on its own resources captured from the DRC army and not being supported by Rwanda.

  • mau
    Nov 21 2012, 10:58

    the UN has no moral or legal right to demand anything from anywhere. period. their inept (to say the least) organization is just a club for the rich and powerful of the world to delve into other people's affairs. what most governments who allow the UN to enter its borders fail to realize, is that first, there is a need to confront internal problems WITHOUT external intervention of arbitration. the UN is only happy to send their soldiers and watchers to "underdeveloped" nations to create a false sense of morality and altruism that is only good for gathering political and economic support. this "organization" and its idiotic political declarations are useless in Africa and elsewhere. these people don't know conflict, they have no idea whatsoever of what war is, what terrorism is, what injustice and exploitation is. they live it from newspaper headlines and reports handed to them in their air-conditioned offices. and as far as the united states is concerned, they too, should look into their own problems before heading into a continent they have played a huge part in exploiting for centuries. their self-centered government is arguably the most disgusting and repulsive representation of evil ever created.

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