Focus on Africa

DR Congo appeals to the UN

The newly appointed Foreign Minister of the DR Congo, Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, tells Focus on Africa, the crisis faced in her country is an international not a regional one. We'll get the details from the BBC's Wahiga Mwaura.

Also we'll hear from a member of Eswatini's opposition party after an alleged poisoning attempt on their leader.

And why illegal lithium mining is on the rise in Nigeria.

Presenter: Charles Gitonga Producers: Rob Wilson in London and Blessing Aderogba in Lagos Technical Producer: Jonathan Greer Senior Journalist: Karnie Sharp Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi

Broadcast on:: 01 Oct 2024
Audio Format:: other

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Offer valid for a limited time, minimum $10 per order service fees, other fees and additional terms apply. Instacart, bringing the store to your door. This Halloween. Hello, I'm Charles Guitonga, and here is what's coming up for you on this edition of Focus on Africa. Days after Sotini's main opposition leader was allegedly poisoned at his home in South Africa. We hear from the Treasurer-General of the party. Killing our president doesn't kill the ideals for which the party stands. Of a Swaziland that has a government that is democratically elected, that has a constitution that is attuned to the ideals of justice, freedom, liberty. All these values are absent at the moment. And what's driving the illegal mining of lithium in Nigeria? It's Tuesday, the 1st of October. First, we got the just-concluded UN General Assembly in New York. The recent history of the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, has been one of civil war and corruption. It's a country rich in natural resources, but has suffered from political instability, a lack of infrastructure, centuries of both commercial and colonial exploitation, and little widespread development since its independence in the 1960s. Now, since the late 2000s, there has been continuing fighting in the east, where a United Nations force is struggling to keep the peace. More than 7 million people have been internally displaced due to the constant threat of violence and atrocities. Added to that, extreme poverty. In December, last year, President Felix Shezakady won a second term in office, which opposition candidates condemned as a sham. And in May this year, he appointed Terese Kaikwamba Wagner as Foreign Minister. It was one of several new appointments. In a sit-down interview at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, Focus on Africa's Wahiga Moira spoke with a newly appointed minister. I've been chatting with Wahiga, and he started off by firstly telling me what the President, Felix Shezakady, said at the UN. Thanks so much, Charles, for this opportunity. I trust that listeners can hear me despite a slight challenge with my voice. Definitely the message from the President of DRC, Felix Shezakady. He was to look at the global situation and raise concerns about the conflicts in the Middle East, Gaza, Lebanon, close to Khomein Sudan, and in the eastern DRC, where he later on went to call for a couple of things that he believes will be the solution to the challenge that his country is facing. He was categorical that DRC requires the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Rwandan troops from our territory. President Shezakady also hailed the Rwanda talks that have been ongoing in Angola and said that they have been encouraging, and it is something that DRC is committed to seeing through, but it doesn't, in a sense, take away the fact that the country still requires that foreign troops withdraw, and by that he was referring to Rwanda. He also called on the international community to condemn the actions of foreign troops in the country and to impose targeted sanctions against those who would want to destabilize the country by having their troops on ground. It's also important to note that time and again, Rwanda have denied any military involvement in the DRC, but this back and forth between these two countries is nothing new. I know it's something you must have covered on this program before. So that was just a bit of a highlight of the statement read there by the President of DRC at the UN General Assembly. In terms of reactions, I'll be able to just share with you what we did here from Rwanda at a Security Council meeting that happened on the sidelines of this particular General Assembly. But the wider conversation at the UN General Assembly obviously was a situation in Lebanon, which was escalating real time as the General Assembly was ongoing. So it may have taken away a bit of the focus from the situation in Sudan as well. Right. Did the President also talk about some of these reported cases of sexual violence in the country at all, because the MSF teams have been reporting that to have treated over two survivors of sexual violence every hour in the DRC in 2013? Well, the President did not get into specifics, but he did speak about the poor and terrible conditions that people in the Eastern DRC are having to endure as a result of this ongoing conflict and why it's imperative for the country and the government to ensure that peace is achieved as quickly as possible. The foreign minister, and I know we'll be talking about that shortly, did go a bit deep into the situation that people living in Eastern DRC face and the humanitarian situation, the concerns around sexual violence, and so much more. So in terms of specifics, that wasn't possible at that very high level at the UN General Assembly. There wasn't a deep dive, but he did paint a picture of the challenging situation that many find themselves in Eastern DRC. And why it is important for a solution to be found as quickly as possible. Let's get into that interview then with the foreign minister of the DRC, Kaly Kwambavatna. What did she say about basically the situation in the east of the country? You did say that the message from the President was to say immediate withdrawal of the Rwandan troops from DRC. Was that still the message from the foreign minister? Well, that was still the message from the foreign minister. She said that the withdrawal of troops is non-negotiable. Foreign troops from their country is non-negotiable. I was keen to hear from her on the Rwanda agreement, because Angola has been a work on mediating between these two countries. ceasefire agreement was reached recently, but both parties don't seem to have abided by it. So I asked her, why has DRC not kept its end of the bargain, but kept its end of the deal? And she did speak about that agreement. It's been proposed. They've looked at it. But she, in a sense, chose to take our discussion separately, talking about certain levels of implementation, different thresholds. And she felt that it was too early to say that an agreement has been not met or met, but rather she felt that what they are doing is moving step by step in reaching the full agreement and taking off certain boxes. So she said one of the thresholds is the departure of all Rwandan troops from our sovereign territory. That's something she said she's hoping for, but she said other key tenets of this process are being looked at. And so she felt it was premature to say that both sides haven't kept their part of the deal. But she did reemphasize what the president had said. The departure of all Rwandan troops from the territory must happen, and that is something they are looking at. And she also hinted at that being the reason why DRC is hesitant for UN peacekeepers to completely withdraw at a time like this. Until foreign troops leave the territory, she felt that it will be premature for peacekeepers also to leave because they are still needed, especially in North Kivu. Here's a little bit of what she told me in that interview. There's a conflict that is linked closely to the interference of one of our neighbors, Rwanda, that has, according to the United Nations group of experts, over 4,000 troops in our country, uninvited, inflegment violation of our territorial integrity and sovereignty. This undermines multilateralism. So I think the appeal is to the UN as a whole, as an institution that is the one we hold dear and that encompasses and embodies all of these principles, but it's also a call to action to all of the member states of the United Nations. Permanent members of the Security Council in particular because they have a very special role and a privileged role if you want. But also non-permanent members and other members of the United Nations. It is about respecting international law, respecting our territorial integrity and our sovereignty. And we insist on the departure of all Rwandan troops from our sovereign territory. The foreign minister to the DRC, Teres Kaikwamba Wagner. It's important to reiterate the point on Rwanda. The government has always denied any allegations of involvement in the DR Congo. You would have spotted the next story in the news. It made headlines a few days ago. It's about the leader of Eswatini's main opposition party, the People's United Democratic Movement, also known as Pudemo. They say that Mlungisi Makanya was poisoned last week in an assassination attempt by the government of Eswatini. The government spokesperson, Alpha's Kamalu, rejected the claim saying, "The allegations that are being leveled by the Pudemo executive against the government are dismissed with the contempt in which it deserves." Makanya is now recovering in a hospital in South Africa where he lives in exile. Eswatini is Africa's last absolute monarchy and ruled by King Suwati III. Political parties are in theory allowed, although they are banned from taking part in elections. And just in case you forgot, the country was called Swaziland until 2018 when they changed the name. To find out more about what's going on, I've been speaking to Velapi Mamba, the Treasurer-General of Pudemo, who also lives in exile in South Africa. Hello, good morning. Good morning, Kevin. How are you? Fine, thank you. So that is Mr. Mamba. Yes, that's correct, Velapi Mamba. I don't know if you know this Mamba, that in Swahili Mamba means crocodile. I don't know what it means in the Swatini. I know, but in South India, it refers to the snake. Okay, all right, so are you ready to start the interview? Yeah, I'm ready. Could you start by telling us how Mr. Lungisi is doing? Thank you very much, Charles, and thank you for having me on the PC, Focus on Africa. The president of the People's United Democratic Movement, EMO, Lungi Smack, is currently operating in hospital. He is now out of the intensive care unit, and we are very grateful to his medical team and to the South African government and the security of the state for looking after him, and they believe as a part that he is now out of the woods and gradually improving his health, we believe that he will be well. That's great to hear. In your view, Mr. Mamba, what happened to him and how did he come to be in this position in hospital? The president was poisoned in Victoria last week, Monday. He was poisoned by a person close to him that we believe is a state functionary or operative. Fortunately, the president was able to call for help and help arrive and rescue him from the situation. Mr. Mamba, you said that you believe that it's a state operative. How are you able to confidently state this, given that the government actually has denied an involvement? Yes, let me start by saying that there is no government in the world, especially a dictatorship or a despotic government that can outrightly admit to this kind of operations, so it would be absurd for them to actually concede that they are the ones who have done this. But we know that there is a history to the attempts to kill the president. And this history was very clear that it is aligned with the program of the government and its operatives. Let's move on then. This incident of the alleged poisoning of your party leader, what kind of impact is this having on the party? First of all, I think we are annotated as a movement in terms of the attempt on our president. Of course, it is a setting, but we are a party. And being a party, it means we are an organization. Killing our president doesn't kill the ideals for which the party stands and ideals that we believe in of a swaziland that has a government that is democratically elected by the people, that has a constitution that is attuned to the ideals of justice, freedom, liberty, and democracy, which all these values are currently absent in the political template of the country at the moment. It may have a chilling effect on us and our leaders, especially around the question of our security. But we are annotated if anything, an incident like this has actually compelled us to be very resolute about what needs to be done, to heighten the path to liberation and freedom of our people, and making sure that swaziland is ushered into a new democratic dispensation. Yeah, though this party is a party that is being led by people that are not presently in Soitini. How do you run an opposition party when you are not present in the country? Utemo is present in Swaziland, Charles. We have senior leaders, members of the Central Working Committee, who are still inside Swaziland, our Deputy President is in Swaziland, our National Organizing Secretary is in Swaziland, our Deputy Secretary General is in Swaziland, our Secretary General is in Swaziland. So the only people in that leadership collective that are not in Swaziland is the President, Muniz Makpanga, and the Treasurer General, myself, the Lapimaam. It does sound to be quite a dangerous affair to be an opposition leader, to be in opposition in Swaziland. But what's driving that? Why is that the case? It is dangerous to be in the opposition in the country, because they are dealing with a state that has a phobia to change. You will recall that Charles, all monarchies in the world, have been in the situation that the Swaziland monarch is in now, a situation where the people recognize that the instruments of state and the sovereignty of the country needs to be regulated by a constitutional framework based on the principles of democracy, human rights, good governance, and the evolution of power that actually centralizes that power in a democratic government, rather than in a family, and the feudal system is currently exercised in Swaziland. So the royal family is facing this very real prospect of being eliminated from the political arena of the country. So that's the fear that underpins this royal family's inability to open up the political space and make sure that there is a ravine of the people. Talk to us then a bit about that political system in the country. Parties are not allowed to take part in elections, but they're allowed to exist, but independent candidates can take part in elections. How does it work this political system in the Swatini? Let me just start by describing this system. It's called the Tingula system of government. This is really a system, it's an autocratic system, where the autocracy of the king over all the three arms of government have been cemented in a constitution that was created after all those powers were taken from the nation post-independence in 1973. You will recall that momentarily from 1968 until 1973, the country was firmly on a multi-party democratic dispensation. But the emergence of opposition parties and them threatening the strength hold of power over the then ruling particle, the import for national movement, created an environmental fear by the royal family that they would lose absolute power. They then appropriated the national constitution and took all powers of state and centered those powers in the office and passing of the king. This then in 1978, the current royal family introduced this system, which is really a system that vanishes the right to freedom of association and freedom of assembly. So in Swaziland, you can associate an assembly in and around any other enterprise, socially and politically, except for in politics. So you can associate in football, you can associate in cultural activities, you can associate in religion, you can associate basically everywhere else except for in politics. Because of the template that the understanding of the ruling regime is that issues must be dealt with politically on the basis of what they call individual merit. So this is why then the electoral system has citizens from organizing groups and you can only go to parliament and hold public office purely on the basis of its nonsensical vision of individual merit. Now, individual merit is problematic in the sense that it impedes the rights of citizens to organize collectively around how it wants to become. And it takes away the franchise in terms of universal precepts around how citizens must be governed. The stratification of our constitution and our parliamentary system is such that all those individuals that are elected on the basis of individual merit actually don't have the power in law to create laws of the country and even to change policy. So even if you can have everyone in all the 59 constituencies elected by the masses sent into parliament, those people become rapper stems because they don't have the powers to change anything in legal terms. The king can actually veto the entire parliament. He can proge it if he wants, meaning he can dismiss it anytime he wants. So the thing on the system of government is a rule by the king. All right. Yeah. All right, Mr. Mamba. There's a lot we could talk about, but we are going to leave it there for today. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Charles. That's Velapi Mamba, Treasurer-General of the Opposition Party, the People's United Democratic Movement. This is Focus on Africa from the BBC World Service. Selling a little or a lot. Shopify helps you do your thing however you chit-ching. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. 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Listen now, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Now let's talk about lithium, a metal mostly used to manufacture batteries, but also used in making aircraft and apparently can treat a bipolar disorder. Now all these uses have seen the global demand increase. Nigeria happens to have huge high-grade lithium reserves and the demand has given rise to illegal and unregulated mining of the metal. In response, the Nigerian government has been cracking down on illegal mining activities. With recent arrests of foreign nationals, local workers and mineral traders accused of stealing lithium. So Dick Atanda is a Nigerian journalist who spent time investigating these illegal activities. And as he tells me, it's an intricate web involving both local and international players. Take a listen. You've been investigating this issue around illegal lithium mining in Nigeria. Tell us where you've gone to and what you found. I went to Bani. Bani is a community in all states Nigeria and as well as in Betsy. Betsy is also a town in all your states. These are two communities in two different states of Nigeria. There are two locations in New Betsy. The first one is the particular location where mining is taking place inside the old Oyeo National Park. This is a protected area set up by the law and it is located within the Betsy community. And in the Betsy community as well, there are some open species, both of residential buildings as well as abandoned buildings where produce lithium mines from the National Park is transported to and backed. Are you able to tell us how this chain is organized? What normally happens in terms of the mining operations and from that what follows next? And where does this lithium go? I found that this started some seven years ago. According to my sources, when I carried out an investigation, the communities did not have the know-how about what lies in this location. But because of the enforcement of Chinese, the lithium was discovered and willing local residents would know how to navigate their ways into this sport. They engage people and it is set up in a way that people who are operating in the park are different from people who are taking stock of lithium, that is transported out to these communities. So it is like a three-wheat thing. There are miners in the bush that are transported who are taking the product out of the bush and then there are people in communities who will receive these ones, once the Chinese who are closely the hand-beneficial of this, once they take all of the lithium, they take it out of the country. And this has been confirmed by the authorities because a lot of times these Chinese have been arrested and because of the global demand for lithium, it makes it so lucrative even for the local players who are here. The park authorities at the time also confirmed that the assumption was that these miners are bandits who moved from the north of the country down to the south were to continue their activities or courts. So then, so Dick, just explain this to me. What is the size of this operation in terms of the illegal mining of lithium? And is there a lithium that is being mined legally with full government consent and licenses in Nigeria? Lithium mining is taking place legally in Nigeria. Recently, Chinese company integrated the lithium processing factory in Nasserawa state of Nigeria, and it was the minister's statement that the country would no longer allow exploitation of any form of a solid mineral from the country without local follow addition. Now, when it comes to the follow of the industry, there's no accurate data, not even from the government about Nigeria's mining industry as a whole. However, it is estimated that Nigeria loses $1 billion annually to illegal mining. Is that a legal mining of lithium specifically or other minerals as well? Including other minerals, Nigeria's lithium belt is large enough for commercial exploration, but the issue lies with accurate data. There's no accurate data to back up the tariff value chain of lithium in the country. The minister says they are working towards ensuring that there is accurate, comprehensive, finite data in the country to guide international investors as well as local investors who are interested in the sector. You've told us that there are Chinese people that are involved in this. How is it that foreign nationals are able to work into Nigeria and run such a big or, you know, the operation that you're describing, involving mining minerals in protected areas? How is that possible? And why is the government not able to go after them? Some of these Chinese people come to the country with the claim that they are tourists. And because of the fact that the fissar system is so weak, really gets a fissar as a tourist. The entire enables them to go to different areas of the country while trying to make sure that they gather enough intelligence about whatever location that they are looking at. And before they come, they must have been in contact with people who are local guys who could take them around and ensure that they have a proper view of what they come to do. It is not difficult for them to get people locally who are willing to cooperate with them because most of these local guys actually don't understand the value of this resource and the security or the law enforcement in that regard has not been effective and this has allowed them to almost take a permanent spot in this community to take whatever resource they are looking for, particularly in this context. At the beginning of this interview, you said that illegal or armed groups are involved in this. Would that be part of the reason? Is it a scenario whereby these groups are also heavily armed and therefore the government may be outgunned in going after them? Because I'm imagining a huge mining operation inside a national park. It's not that difficult for the government to find it, yet they can't go there. Why don't they go there? I wouldn't say the government lacks enough capacity and strength to deal with them or to rat them out of that. However, these gangs are also armed. They are well equipped and they understand the terrain more than the government. The problem now is that this operation is successful and has been going on on handout because local collaborators are in fault. Each time the government wants to take an action, I think the intelligence is usually broken by local people. There are these when these people don't operate because they already know that they have some disk that they operate in a month or once in a blue moon, and once they have that information like this coming week or, for instance, this next week, I'm a park that's coming to this environment. Transport us are not going to operate. Then the gangs will be in the will be in the park. Mining and continue the operation, but transport us are not going to work on that. So it is a function of ineffective intelligence gadget on the part of the government that is enabling this to continue. How can people who understand the terrain are in fault and as well as some pack rangers too are in fault because they also give out information that we are going to be held on certain disks and then this enables the miners, the transport us and everybody in fault to be aware that something is going to happen and then they are not going to operate on that. So it's a problem of intelligence gadget and weak coordination. Okay, thank you very much, Sadiq. It's my pleasure speaking with you. Tanda, journalist with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism. Focus on Africa was put together by Rob Wilson in London and blasting AdeRuba in Lagos. Corny Sharp was a senior journalist in charge, and Jonathan Greer was a technical producer. Our editors are Andrew Lombard and Ali Smudengi. I'm Charles Gittonga, goodbye for now. [Music] The inquiry goes beyond the headlines exploring the trends, forces and ideas shaping the world. Politics. Civil society, products and services. AI. Each week we ask one big question. Can Germany's far right win the country? And go in search of answers with a help for expert witnesses. Is Turkey getting more dangerous for women? Think Wiry from the BBC World Service. Listen now, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. You [BLANK_AUDIO]