On 21 February, Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi sent an emissary to Bamako, Mali, to deliver a message to President Assimi Goïta.
Goïta (@GoitaAssimi on X) and Malian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdoulaye Diop (@AbdoulayeDiop8 on X) received Congo’s Minister of Justice Constant Mutamba Tungunga (@ConstantMutamba on X) and the Congolese ambassador to Mali, Christophe Muzunga (@RDC_Minafet on X).
While the public does not yet know the details of what they discussed, many speculate that the meeting concerned the Rwanda- and Uganda-backed M23 rapidly taking over parts of eastern DRC in January and February 2025. So far, M23’s campaign has forced more than 700,000 Congolese off their lands.
Congo, one of the most resource-rich countries worldwide, has long been plundered by imperialist industrialised powers for its riches. Mali, on the other hand, is currently part of the AES, a confederation established on 6 July 2024 between Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. The AES is at the forefront of defending Africa’s sovereignty and fighting to exercise greater control over its resources.
Some describe the ongoing three-decade-long, Western-backed war over resources in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as a crisis of imperialism, with the potential to impact all of Africa. After all, Ghanaian leader Kwame Nkrumah (1909-72) once declared, ‘The Congo is the heart of Africa. Any wound inflicted upon the Congo is a wound to the whole of Africa.’
Yet, today, Congo is under attack, and some of the world’s greatest imperialist powers fund the two states behind M23: Rwanda and Uganda. Only recently has the US sanctioned a few Rwandan and M23 officials, the European Parliament recommended suspending a Rwanda minerals agreement and freezing aid, and the UK sought to end aid to Rwanda.
Could the DRC-Mali meeting be the Pan-African link-up necessary to chart a sovereign path for Congo?
Sources:
https://burkina24.com/2025/02/22/mali-rdc-assimi-goita-recoit-un-emissaire-du-president-tshisekedi/
https://www.state.gov/sanctioning-drivers-of-violence-in-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo