Diallo Ablaye, founding vice-president of the Sur Sur International Cooperation Foundation, international representative of the World Pan-African Organisation OPAM-WOPO/OPDH, and secretary of CONAICOP (National and International Council of Popular Communication).
We often speak about the genocide in Palestine. There is no doubt that what we say is not enough to make the whole world more and more aware of it. But it would be unfair to ignore what is happening in the Congo.
I am sure that for many people, the phrase ‘the Belgian Congo’ almost automatically conjures up images of an extremely remote, almost non-existent place. This is no coincidence, as the country’s history is sadly linked to that of Belgium, and the Congo remains a forgotten country.
Leopold II was the sovereign, founder, and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908. It was a private project that he directed himself. During this period, 15 million people were exterminated.
Extractivism at that time was based on rubber. Among the many barbarities, the patriarch Leopoldo had children’s hands cut off if they did not collect enough at the end of the day. So many children were mutilated that chocolate hands are a “nice” tradition in Belgium, in memory of the distant colony.
After 1908, the territory acquired the status of a Belgian colony until its hypothetical independence in 1960.
But the genocide in the Congo continues to this day. Women and children are massacred with machetes, then executed and dumped in the streets. Thousands of people are fleeing the violence in eastern DR Congo as fighting between the Congolese army and the armed group M23 intensifies.
From a distance, one might think this is part of their destiny as if it were a natural plan. But this is petty stupidity because there is nothing natural about genocide.
Of course, to carry out the plunder in comfort, the West encourages government instability so that national self-management initiatives cannot flourish. When a strong and honest leader emerges, he is murdered, as in the case of Patrice Lumumba. In this way, the colonialist countries intend to keep the African population in perpetual slavery.
Today, Congo is no longer about rubber, but about the exploitation of the enormous resources that the country possesses, such as coltan, cobalt, lithium, zirconium, bauxite, gold, diamonds, phosphate, etc., which feed the industry and the greed of the West.
The second part of this injustice is much closer to home, but this does not mean that Africans are seen as people to be welcomed and saved from the evils caused by the West.
Not content with the disaster that has occurred, the system is busy defaming the victims. “Western countries want Africa’s natural resources, but they don’t want black African citizens,” writes Diallo Ablaye on his X account.
When Africans are forced to leave their country, the West thinks it is being bothered by these people in need. To this end, they deny them the minimum of humanitarian aid and use a discourse full of defamation against those who are fleeing the disaster they have created and continue to create in Africa.
It is vital to give visibility to the crimes that are now taking place in Congo and in many African countries, to promote a narrative that is in line with reality, so that more and more people abandon the violent and racist vision with which they pollute our minds.
The world needs new leaders to create the conditions for a new balance in Africa, but it also needs the commitment of all of us.
Action is needed on many fronts at once: self-organization and educational campaigns, both in Africa and the West.
But one thing is clear: Africa does not need Western handouts; it has enough wealth; all it needs is for them to stop plundering and committing crimes.
Diallo Ablaye is one such leader working for this cause through the Pan-Africanist Movement.
You can follow him on social media at
@latinoamerihermanos Diallo Ablaye, el representante internacional de la organización panafricanista mundial hace llegar a todos los medios el Comunicado conjunto de las organizaciones panafricanistas con motivo del 37 e cumbre de la Unión Africana en Addis-Abeba ( Etiopía).#africa
Genocidio en el congo y silencio total de la llamada comunidad internacional y de la Unión europea. Es vergonzoso el silencio y la indiferencia del mundo cuando los que mueren son negros africanos. "Los países occidentales quieren los recursos naturales africanos pero no quieren… pic.twitter.com/qF5H1MQQBA
— Hugo Gutiérrez (@Hugo_Gutierrez_) February 13, 2024
https://x.com/kitmediaoficial/status/1759150252412538992?t=kbPtvKLiNQTah5SRotZCMQ&s=35
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