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Belgium and the US Fight over Congolese Resource Data
On 6 July 2026, the United States and Belgium faced off at the World Cup. Even though Belgium eliminated the US 4-1, there is another, more critical, arena where the two countries’ exploitative competition remains unresolved: the fight over Africa’s natural resources, particularly those in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The DRC is facing up to its former coloniser, Belgium, but not in a way that will actually benefit the Congolese people.
The Royal Museum for Central Africa, a museum created to house and display Belgium’s colonial-era acquisitions from its 19th- and 20th-century pillaging in Central Africa, hosts millions of valuable documents detailing the location of Congolese precious minerals.
Naturally, Congo wants access to data mined from its own country and pertaining to its own resources. However, the DRC has already agreed to hand the data off to the United States, specifically the private mining company KoBold Metals, backed by Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
Belgium refuses to hand over the data, arguing that its maps and geological records belong to the public, not any private company. Caught in the middle are the Congolese people who stand to lose whether their resource records stay with their former Belgian colonisers or are transferred to the world’s greatest imperialist power, the United States.
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1 Comment-
Funny but sad… From one puppeteer to the other 🤦♂️
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