 For more videos on people's struggles, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. But how can the arsonist become the firefighter? Can you imagine that the DRC has known a war for the past two decades, where over 6 million Congolese have died in this conflict and the conflict hasn't ended? This war around resources of the DRC is being supported by US allies, randomly Uganda, the United States, armed, trained, assist the Ugandan military, the Rwandan military, in their invasions in the DRC. And today we have US generals showing up in Kinshasa, the country where the US government with the CIA decided to kill the first democratically elected prime minister of the DRC to come and say to us that they are in the DRC to help the Congolese. On January 27th, two African command leaders visited the Democratic Republic of Congo on a high-level visit of two days. African or US Africa command falls under the US Department of Defense. It is responsible for all US military operations in 53 African countries. The two visiting officers, Ambassador Andrew Young and Rare Admiral Heidi Berg, met with various high officials of the government, including President Felix Shisekevi. The stated purpose of this visit by African leaders ranged from security cooperation to civilian issues such as infrastructure and tackling corruption. But behind the diplomatic language lies a long history of US military intervention in the DRC and all of Africa. What is the US really trying to achieve with this kind of intervention? The United States government has a long history of engagement, military engagement in the DRC. Fortunately, they've always been on the wrong side of the history. I had to go all the way back to the 1885, the first country to recognize Congo as the personal property of King Leopold whenever the African continent was being covered, the Ballet Conference was the United States. This has continued in years after of US military engagement. But to focus mainly on what has unfolded now with African visits, the current president of the DRC seemed to have very close ties with the United States. Since the results of the election in 2018 was released, he's seen traveling around with the US ambassador. It's almost as the US ambassador to the DRC is his personal assistant. So we found it also bizarre that he will come to Washington in 2019. First place he visited when he was in Washington DC was the World Bank IMF meeting with government officials. And in most of his meetings, he was chaperoned by the US ambassador, Mike Hammer. But during that first visit of Elisha Sekedi in 2019, discussions of US military engagement became much more clear. The United States had organized meetings with the president saying that they wanted military presence, particularly a US military base. But is that new? No. The US has been military engaged in the DRC, training the Congolese military, training the Congolese police all the way up back to 2009. Those are like after effects, I could say, from decisions from George Bush, continuing through the Obama years. The US military has provided what they call med flag military training to the Congolese military. They have done military training for specific battalion in the camp base in the Northeast Congo. This base is used by the US military a lot in the Kisangani region. And that's the one that they really want to develop to become a US military base in the DRC. They have been pushed back from the Congolese government before the current president. But it seems that they want to officialize that. But why the DRC? Congo is strategically positioned on the African continent. It's right at the heart of Africa. It's border-banan African countries. It's very easy from Kisangani, which is in the northeast part of the DRC, to reach the Horn of Africa around Djibouti, where the US has a military base as well, to reach the north of Africa, to move to the south, or to go to the west. So whoever controls the Congo, as Mao said, controls the world. And the US is choosing the DRC to have its military footprint on the African continent. So that's one, the geostrategic position of the DRC. The other one is a resource control. The Congo is the sixth largest oil producer on the African continent. There is a lot of oil in the area where the US military has been present. Right in the east of the area where they are, you have oil in Lake Albert, you go to the west of Congo, to our Kinshasa. There is oil also right by the Congo River going to the Atlantic. So they want to make sure that they protect oil reserves. And that's the military branch that came to the DRC. It's the US-African command. The US-Africa command called AFRICOM is interested in protecting US interests on the African continent, which is not African interests, which is not Congolese interests. It's really US interests. The challenge now with the decision to pretty much unveil in front of everyone, for every Congolese, is for Congolese and Africans to understand what's happening in 2021 and the future of the African continent. We have many military forces on the African continent beyond even the United States. Japan has forces, Qatar has forces. The African continent now is pretty much under an invasion of Western military forces and all the military forces. Why are they here? The United States will say that they want to be in the Congo because of Al Qaeda, because of ISIS. The UN group of experts in the DRC have published the reports, multiple reports, clearly stating that there is no link with rebel groups in the DRC devices. Yet, the US-Africa command continues to repeat that the DRC is now a terrorist threat. For some, they may remember when Donald Trump was president, he passed a ban on a few African countries, like a travel ban for a few African countries. To everyone's surprise, the DRC was on that list as part of countries that harbor terrorists, particularly terrorists linked to ISIS. We know that this narrative has been pushed, which is not true. We are clear that the US-Africa command, African, is not in the DRC for peace and stability. It's not in the DRC to stop so-called terrorists. They are there to protect US interests. They are there to protect US resources, and not US resources, but to protect US national interests for Congo's resources, particularly cobalt oil and many strategic resources that the Congo has, that the US needs as they seek to dominate the world. This visit by US military commanders came just days after another important visit to the DRC. On January 6th, the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, held talks with the minister of state and minister of foreign affairs of the DRC. The agenda presented by the Chinese delegation was starkly different than that of the US military. For the foreseeable future, we should be clear that the DRC of Parchés de Mumba will always have people who covet their resources. But in the end, as Patricia said, that the Congo's resources should benefit the Congolese people and benefit the well-being of the Congolese people before it benefits anyone else. The two-day visit from the 27th to the 29th of January of the US military clearly shows that the US is not in the DRC for peace and stability or for even Congolese interests. I mean, if they really cared about the DRC while they're traveling during that time, we have the pandemic. We may have one to get doctors coming, support around COVID. But as you mentioned, this January 2020 had two high-profile visits. The Chinese government sent the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, to Africa and to a few countries around the world, and he visited the DRC. Very fascinating visit. It was almost a week apart, the visit of the Chinese foreign minister and the visit of the US military. When Wang Yi was in the DRC, Congolese were pleasantly surprised that China forgave one of the free interest loans they've given to the DRC. Not only that, the DRC is benefiting from the pledge of getting the Corona vaccine developed. I think it's the Corona vaccine that will be made available to the Congolese people. Not only that, they will benefit also from the Belt and Road Initiative. Already 46 African countries are part of that, including now the Congo. So Congo and many African countries, 46 African countries have joined this. Why is that critical? The African continent, particularly the DRC, is in the need of development. Is that even selling their product to a market? Where are they able to benefit from that? But the discussion is different. A Chinese foreign minister coming to the DRC, meeting Congolese officials, there is no discussion around building a Chinese military base. There is more discussion about how do we help you during COVID-19, this global pandemic? How do we help you with the infrastructure development? And how do we engage with your country with a multilateral development of trade with China and the world? And Congo joined that. A week later, the US military shows up in Congo. So as they are in the DRC, the discussion is how do we bring peace and stability in the DRC? How do we stop the war? For someone who does not know Congo's history for the past two decades, you will look in the naked eye that this is a positive thing for the US to do. But how can the arsonist become the firefighter? Can you imagine that the DRC has known a war for the past two decades, where over 6 million Congolese have died in this conflict? And the conflict hasn't ended. This war around the resources of the DRC is being supported by US allies, randomly Uganda, the United States, armed, trained, assist the Ugandan military, the Rwandan military, in their evasions in the DRC. No condemnation, no strong action against them up until today. So the same nation which has armed Uganda and Rwanda, Congo's neighbors in the east, is coming today to the Congolese after arming them with the weapons, where the UN group of experts have published numerous reports showing rebels in the DRC with night vision gaggle, with sophisticated weaponry, and clearly tying that the weapons of the rebels in the DRC are coming from the Rwandan military, are coming from the Ugandan military, these two nations getting the weapons from the United States. And today we have US generals showing up in Kinshasa, the country where the US government with the CIA decided to kill the first democratically elected prime minister of the DRC to come and say to us that they are in the DRC to help the Congolese. I mean, Congolese cannot believe that, but those who believe, unfortunately, we do have some who believe that the US has the moral integrity for helping the DRC. What we are making sure to do, we are informing the masses of Abu Ghraib. When you have the US military, you may have Abu Ghraib in the DRC. We know the tortures of the US military. We know what they've done in Vietnam. We know what they've done in Iraq, Afghanistan. We know what they've done all across the world. Militarism is never a solution. What African needs, what Congo needs, they need partners who are going to come and help with how do we make sure that 81 million Congolese can live with food electricity. What does that actually concretely mean? We are fascinated by the story of how 80 million Chinese are no longer poor, the poverty alleviation. In the DRC, the World Food Program says that 22 million Congolese are the verge of starvation. I'm not just saying they are on the verge of starvation. So we want to know how do we make sure that Congolese can have food on the table, how we can benefit from anything. Those are the partners that we need. But as I said, there are some in minority who may believe that the US has a good interest. And that's not necessarily from just a proper analysis. It's unfortunately a cultural hegemony. Whenever you start seeing Hollywood movies thinking that the US military can come and save the Congo and stop the war, they couldn't stop the so-called insurrectionists in Congress in the United States. I doubt they'll be able to help us. But for the Congolese at this juncture, it is quite alarming. Not just for the Congolese. Let me actually say it differently. For Africans that in 2021, in the middle of COVID-19, what the United States is interested in is US militarization or DRC, not ending the pandemic, not helping the Congo grow and develop. But that's what they're interested in. And that's what's important, at least for us Congolese, as we see that, we are going to fight to make sure that this does not continue the DRC, that we have generals flying in the country without accountability, and that we build alliances with all humans on this planet who want peace stability, who want a human being to be able to have food on a table, to have electricity at home, to have access to water, to live as good as they can be on this planet without a gun, without a weapon in peace and stability.