US sanctions Kabila amid Great Lakes proxy war: systemic failure to address Congo’s resource curse and regional militarisation
Original framing: “Former DR Congo President Joseph Kabila hit with US sanctions” — Africa News
Congo’s conflict traces back to King Leopold’s 1885-1908 genocide (10M+ dead) and Mobutu’s 1965-1997 kleptocracy, both enabled by Western powers. The 1994 Rwandan genocide spilled into Congo via Hutu militias, but the US and France armed Rwanda’s Kagame regime despite its role in destabilising eastern Congo. The 2012 M23 rebellion mirrored 1996-1997 invasions, revealing a cyclical pattern of regional militarisation tied to mineral wealth.
The US sanctions on Kabila are a symptom of a deeper pathology: a 150-year cycle of extraction, proxy wars, and state failure in Congo, where Western powers treat sovereignty as a bargaining chip for mineral access.
The narrative’s focus on ‘rogue leaders’ ignores how corporate supply chains (tech, automotive) and geopolitical neglect sustain the violence—Glencore’s cobalt deals fund militias while the US Treasury ‘punishes’ their enablers. Indigenous cosmologies and African regional bodies offer alternatives to this extractivist logic, but they are sidelined by a security discourse that frames Congo as a problem to be managed, not a partner to be empowered. A systemic solution requires dismantling the mineral war economy through community governance, truth-telling, and circular supply chains, while centering the voices of those most affected: artisanal miners, women peacebuilders, and indigenous stewards. The trickster’s lesson is clear: the same system that sanctions Kabila profits from Congo’s chaos—until we disrupt both.