The Congo: Frenemies

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

Frenemies

A court sentenced Vital Kamerhe, chief of staff to President Felix Tshisekedi, to 20 years of hard labor on charges of corruption and embezzlement in a case that was a test of Congo’s resolve to tackle high-level corruption, Bloomberg reported Saturday.

Kamerhe was found guilty of embezzling more than $50 million from infrastructure projects linked to the first 100 days of Tshisekedi’s term. He has denied the charges and said the accusations were politically motivated.

Meanwhile, Tshisekedi has not commented on the case.

Kamerhe has been a powerbroker in the country for 15 years, leading former President Joseph Kabila’s first election campaign in 2006, after which he became head of the National Assembly.

Kamerhe broke with Kabila in 2009, then ran for president against his former boss in 2011, finishing third. He became chief of staff in 2018 in a deal with the current president which would have allowed him to run for the top job in 2023.

He is no longer eligible due to the conviction.

The case has captivated the nation, especially after Congo’s justice minister announced last week that the judge who had initially presided over Kamerhe’s trial, and who died last month, was murdered: The judge’s autopsy revealed that he died from a brain hemorrhage caused by head trauma, prompting the police to begin a murder investigation.

His arrest marks a win for Tshisekedi’s government in the fight against endemic corruption, but also removes a key ally in the president’s power struggle with Kabila’s supporters who still dominate the country’s institutions.

Even so, analysts say the verdict doesn’t mean Congo has turned a page in its fight to clamp down on corruption.

“It’s not lost on anyone who knows the DRC that this will make both Kabila and the Tshisekedi camp very happy…because both Kabila and Tshisekedi always saw Vital Kamerhe as an important political rival,” Stephanie Wolters of the South African Institute of International Affairs, told Bloomberg. “So, there are a number of reasons to be skeptical about the motivation of this and also to be skeptical about the longevity of any kind of sustained effort to go after anybody in the DRC who’s involved in corruption.”

Mocambique: A Perfect Storm

MOZAMBIQUE

A Perfect Storm

South African anti-poaching snipers helped Mozambican forces push back militants in the country’s war-torn, gas-rich northern region of Cabo Delgado recently.

As reported in the Telegraph, the appearance of the sharpshooters was the latest development in a civil war that kicked off in late 2017. The militants known sometimes as Ansar al-Sunnah have seized towns, and beheaded those who resist. In the port city of Mocímboa da Praia, the rebels hoisted the black flag of Islamic State on government buildings. More than 1,000 people have died in the fighting.

Thickening the plot, a massive gas field was discovered off the coast of Cabo Delgado. The US has been competing with China to finance development of the field, Bloomberg reported.

The government has also been arresting journalists and researchers who have attempted to investigate happenings in the region, raising questions about whether officials have launched a heavy-handed response that might help stoke the uprising, the New Humanitarian wrote.

Writing in World Politics Review, Yale University Doctoral Candidate Hilary Matfess and RAND Corporation Political Scientist Alexander Noyes agreed with that point. In a video, for example, militant leaders appealed to Cabo Delgado residents, saying, “We occupy (the towns) to show that the government of the day is unfair. It humiliates the poor and gives the profit to the bosses.”

As the violence has escalated, it’s been hard to bring humanitarian aid into Cabo Delgado that might improve the situation. As many as 200,000 people in the region are displaced, a potential disaster in a country that already suffers from the challenges related to poverty.

“There are still thousands of displaced people who are hiding in the bush, too scared to go back to their villages,” said Caroline Gaudron Rose of Medecins Sans Frontieres “They are terrified of the ongoing violence…without shelter, clean water and access to medical care, they are extremely vulnerable.”

The coronavirus pandemic is now complicating matters, Voice of America added. Displaced people can spread the virus not only through their movements but by hunkering down together when they understandably seek safety in numbers.

The militants have handed out food and other supplies to people in a bid to drum up public support.

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, meanwhile, has vowed not to let the fighting devolve into a civil war reminiscent of the 16-year-long conflict between communists and anti-communists that ended in 1992, Vatican News reported. Regional leaders are discussing how to help, Al Jazeera noted.

Observers say that’s a start. But the response is not quick enough.

“I don’t know what the government is going to do,” said a 29-year-old teacher from Muidumbe, speaking to the New Humanitarian. “Right now, there’s people who don’t know what they’re going to eat.”