In a press release published on Monday April 7, the spokeswoman for the President of the Republic, Tina Salama, announced that the DRC was suspending until further notice all lobbying contracts, approaches or proposals made or entered into between it and American entities, firms or practices specializing in this field. While this is seen as good news, questions persist in Kinshasa about these funds and the relevance of the steps taken.

“In view of the mutually expressed desire to relaunch strategic partnerships between the two administrations, the DRC’s approach is to give priority to direct exchanges with the new American administration, through official and authorized channels”, writes the Congolese presidency. Consequently,” adds the press release, “the presidency is suspending, without delay, until further notice, all lobbying contracts, approaches and proposals concluded or made between it and American entities, firms or firms specializing in this field, in particular the contract with Earhart Turner LLC.”

In recent years, the DRC has tried everything to push its interests in Washington.
From the arrival of Ronny Jackson as “Special Envoy of U.S. President Donald Trump and member of the U.S. Congress”, according to the Congolese Presidency, to the many different lobbying firms hired for the same cause, to the Congolese delegations that have travelled between New York and Washington to bring to fruition a Congolese government proposal for security support in exchange for the strategic minerals that the DRC abounds in.

For the Honorable Jean Bamanisa Saidi, this multiplicity of approaches “does not seem to bring effective and efficient results, whereas the Democratic Republic of Congo has the opportunity and the advantage to sit down and discuss its future with the world’s major powers, major technical companies and the best financial partners in order to obtain substantial funds, but, because of the multiplicity of players, is unable to capitalize on them for the benefit of the country”, he warned.

Jean Bamanisa Saidi is a former governor of Orientale province between 2012 and 2015, then of Ituri province between 2019 and 2021. Since 2022, he has been a member of the Senate, and is one of the Congolese political players to take an interest in the DRC’s international relations in his speeches.

“It’s imperative to change paradigms in this direction, with contributions from all the country’s structures. The latter must be prepared, with the possibility of negotiating natural resource contracts for the benefit of the various areas of national life targeted by these contracts, according to the priorities of security, infrastructure, education, health, administration, roads and urban drainage networks and others, depending on the interests of these countries and those of DR Congo” suggests Jean Bamanisa Saidi.

For a time, Kinshasa charmed the new administration in Washington. With the proposal of access to strategic minerals such as Coltan, cassiterite, lithium and other raw materials useful for the automotive and telecommunications industries, the Tshisekedi government wants to trade the deal in Rwanda’s war against the DRC by supporting the M23 militarily and technically. Mossad Boulos, President Donald Trump’s Africa advisor, arrived in the DRC at the end of March, where he discussed this proposal with Félix Tshisekedi. Kinshasa was optimistic the day after the meeting. This would have prompted Kinshasa to focus its efforts on direct exchanges on this plan.

Wait and see

Written by Akilimali Chomachoma