

Conclusions du Conseil sur la Republique democratique du Congo (06.03.2017)







After reading a Forbes article on Illicit Financial Funds leaving Ethiopia, as they question the need for and the use of donor aid to Ethiopia. I had to read the reports that it partly was based and make my own assumptions. The difference is that I want to focus on the East African Nations and their Illicit Financial Funds that leaves the States. So that the values and the amounts show’s lack of governance and regulation of finance gives way for the African governments and corporations to get away with transferring funds without legal bounds. This is a way of misusing funds and also money laundering through lacking revenue service and authorities to keep up the upkeep of the states. Take a look!
“IFFs are illegal movements of money or capital from one country to another. GFI classifies such flows as illicit if the funds crossing borders are illegally earned, transferred, and/or utilized. If the flow breaks a law at any point, it is illicit” (GFI, 2015).
“African governments have a political interest in IFFs because these flows impact their national development aspirations and encroach on state structures. They therefore have law enforcement and regulatory agencies whose duties include preventing IFFs. Among these are the police, financial intelligence units and anti-corruption agencies. Governments also have customs and revenue services and other agencies whose purposes are thwarted or hindered by IFFs” (IFF, P: 35, 2016).
“The widespread occurrence of IFFs in Africa also points to a governance problem in the sense of weak institutions and inadequate regulatory environments. IFFs accordingly contribute to undermining state capacity. To achieve their purposes, the people and corporations behind IFFs often compromise state officials and institutions. Left unchecked, these activities lead to entrenched impunity and the institutionalization of corruption” (IFF, P: 51, 2016)
“Most African countries do not have enough highly trained lawyers, accountants and tax experts to carry out the oversight functions to prevent or punish perpetrators of illicit financial outflows. The few that exist are often overworked and unable to prepare sufficiently to take on top-class representing large corporations” (IFF, P: 72, 2016).
Illicit Financial Funds ranking in the years of 2004 – 2013:
| Nation | IFFs | Ranking |
| Burundi | $87m | 124 |
| Congo (DRC) | $225m | 107 |
| Djibouti | $375m | 96 |
| Ethiopia | $2,583m | 46 |
| Eritrea | $38m | 133 |
| Kenya | $83m | 125 |
| Rwanda | $359m | 97 |
| Somalia | $0m | 147 |
| Sudan | $1,311m | 67 |
| Tanzania | $482m | 90 |
| Uganda | $715m | 78 |
*(in millions of U.S. dollars, nominal)
* Global Financial Integrity December Report 2015
Total IFFs in the years of 2004 – 2013 (GER+HMN)
| Nation | Total IFFs |
| Burundi | $866m |
| Congo (DRC) | $2,254m |
| Djibouti | $3,745m |
| Ethiopia | $25,835m |
| Eritrea | $115m |
| Kenya | $829m |
| Rwanda | $3,589m |
| Somalia | $0m |
| Sudan | $13,115m |
| Tanzania | $4,820m |
| Uganda | $7,149m |
*(in millions of U.S. dollars, nominal)
* Global Financial Integrity December Report 2015
* “Trade misinvoicing (GER) dominates measurable illicit outflows, averaging 83.4 percent of total illicit outflows during the years 2004 to 2013. However, there has been a noticeable growth in the hot money narrow (HMN) estimate of balance of payment leakages over those years as well. Though initially only accounting for 6.9 percent of illicit outflows in 2004, HMN rose to 19.4 percent of illicit flows by 2013” (GFI, P: 10, 2015).
If you look at the charts there are some monies that is missing and gone away on all sorts of schemes and tax exemptions, all sort of added invoicing or other types of financial instruments to make sure the monies doesn’t end where they are supposed to be. The East African states have misused giant amount of funds.
Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda are topping the list. What is weird for me and the report it is not specifying the Sudan as the Khartoum republic or putting South Sudan alone! So the report and the values put on South Sudan, which was independent in 2011, there do not know what of part of Sudan who has illicit funds. Still, the values and the amount of million dollars Illicit Financial Funds (IFFs) from Ethiopia for instance. You can wonder how much of the government budget that is eaten by this sort of financial mismanagement and misuse of public funds. The reserves and state coffers have to be hit when it is these amounts of dollars that are lost. Uganda have also gotten rid of giant amount of funds, these is 10 higher than the revelation during the Oil Probe with the 2.4 Trillion shillings, which is about $640-700m dollars. That we’re oil revenue that has not been remitted to the state, just these values is ten-times of what was revealed in the Ugandan courts. So there is other revenue that the State House, Bank of Uganda and Uganda Revenue Authority not have complied to or have registered as there is a loss of $7,149 million dollars.
These is just two financial instruments as the HMN and the GER that is explained under the table, the other ways of misusing funds, I haven’t even covered. This is just how much that is miss-invoicing and Hot Money Narrow, the others can be shown at another time. The numbers shown here alone show the extent of misuse of funds in a decade. That is the public loss and the state coffers that been looted by the regime and their lack of will of following and regulating the financial markets. Therefore, the state and institutions does not have the will or capacity to follow the money. This shouldn’t be evident, but it is and not a good look. Peace.
Reference:
Illicit Financial Flows iff – ‘Report of the High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa’
Global Financial Integrity – ‘Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2004-2013’ (December 2015)







According to the report by the UN Joint Human Rights Office of MONUSCO (UNJHRO), at least 40 people, including five women and two children, were killed between 15 and 31 December 2016 across several cities of the DRC, among them Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, Boma and Matadi.
GENEVA, Switzerland, March 1, 2017 -Defence and security forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo used excessive, disproportionate and at times lethal force to prevent and contain demonstrations in December 2016, a UN report published today has found.
According to the report by the UN Joint Human Rights Office of MONUSCO (UNJHRO), at least 40 people, including five women and two children, were killed between 15 and 31 December 2016 across several cities of the DRC, among them Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, Boma and Matadi.
The findings of the UNJHRO investigation show that 28 individuals were killed by soldiers of the Forces armées de la République démocratique du Congo (FARDC), six by agents of the Police Nationale Congolaise (PNC) and the remaining six during joint PNC and FARDC operations. All but two of the victims were killed by live ammunition.
During the same period, at least 147 individuals were injured by State agents, including 14 women and 18 children, and at least 917 individuals, including 30 women and 95 children, were arrested by defence and security forces. The report also notes that some protesters carried out acts of violence, including the killing of at least one PNC agent in Kinshasa on 20 December 2016.
The report indicates that most of the victims were unarmed civilians wounded by live ammunition on upper parts of the body, suggesting an excessive and disproportionate use of force by security forces in operations to contain the demonstrations.
“Such serious incidents are worrisome, particularly in the current context. The Government bears the primary responsibility to implement the confidence-building measures provided for under the 31 December 2016 Global and Inclusive Political Agreement to defuse tensions and create an environment conducive to the holding of peaceful elections. MONUSCO will continue to support efforts by the Government to achieve these objectives, including through investigation and strong sanction for all those responsible for serious human rights violations,” said Maman Sambo Sidikou, the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the DRC.
“MONUSCO remains committed to accompanying the DRC towards peaceful, credible and inclusive elections,” Sidikou stressed.
The report also condemns the fact that while the PNC is normally in charge of crowd control operations, during the period under review, FARDC soldiers, including those of the Republican Guard and of the Military Police, were deployed to control crowds, functions for which they are not adequately equipped nor trained. The lack of accountability for past human rights violations, including those committed during the demonstrations in Kinshasa on 19 and 20 September 2016, may have encouraged a sense of impunity, and defence and security forces to commit further violations in December 2016.
“Once again we see serious human rights violations being committed blatantly and with complete impunity by the security forces, who employed excessive use of force against unarmed demonstrators, in flagrant violation of international human rights law and standards,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said.
“I urge the Government to ensure that those responsible for such violations committed in the context of events that marked the end of President Joseph Kabila’s second constitutional mandate are held accountable and brought to justice. Measures should also be taken, at all levels, to ensure that the legitimate exercise of fundamental freedoms by the population will not lead to loss of lives and other serious rights violations,” Zeid said.
“I therefore call on the DRC Government to urgently adopt the law on freedom of peaceful protests and the law on human rights defenders. This is hugely important for the coming months as the DRC should move towards implementing the 31 December political agreement and preparing for the next presidential election,” Zeid stressed.

Earlier this year there we’re reports that, all of sudden M23 soldiers had left the barracks in Uganda and crossed the borders again into Democratic Republic of Congo. With that the Congolese authorities and Ugandan Authorities showing lacking concern of the ex-militants, that apparently is still rebels and militants attacking civilians and army in North Kivu. This with the knowledge of the former Gen. Sultani Makenga who left his house as well, as most of the soldiers fled the barracks too. This is a return of violence and killings in DRC, in time for a needed crisis for President Joseph Kabila.
Here are recent reports on their struggle and hazardous behaviour in Congo. M23 continues where they left-off when they had come to Uganda as relieved rebels and promised to leave their past behind. Still, the UPDF kept them in barracks and in a military facility. So you could wonder how these former rebels should get another career when the armed militants got possibility of army training as they we’re pardoned by the Ugandan Government or a sort of amnesty if they left the militia. Still, they apparently had the ability to flee for the Congolese soil and create havoc again in Nord-Kivu.
“North Kivu / Goma: 12 M23 Rebels were killed, 68 captured and 39 rendered in a violent confrontation between the congolese army and the rebels m23 from Wednesday to Thursday, 23 February 2017 in the group Of busanza in rutshuru territory in the province of north kivu in the east of the #DRC” (100 Citoyens journalistes de RD Congo, 24.02.2017)
Official Reports:
“The Democratic Republic of Congo’s army has killed at least 16 former members of a rebel group after they re-entered the country’s east, the military’s spokesperson said Thursday. Fighting near Rutshuru began on Wednesday and by Thursday the army had captured 68 former M23 rebels and 39 others surrendered, said Major Ndjike Kaiko. “We are tracking the fleeing M23 fighters who are seeking to infiltrate Kinyandoni and into the Virunga National Park,” he said” (The Great Lakes Post, 24.02.2016).

M23 wants ransom from DRC Government:
“M23: $ 1 million to liberate the colonel of Georgia on 27 January, two combat helicopters of the congolese army were crashing at a hundred miles of Goma (North Kivu) doing three wounded and 4 missing. Three members of the first aircraft manufacturing (Russian) turned out to be also of Russian nationality. Initially the authorities in the drc explained that a first aircraft that was flying at low altitude would have hit the trees and would therefore be accidentally crushed. The second helicopter launched in search of the first, flying too low, would have crashed in turn… really out of luck! Some observers were amazed that these “accidents” in series occurred in a border area where m23 rebels are known to be present. In fact, we learn these last few hours, that the M23 seeks $ 1 million in exchange for the release of one of the two pilots. The man whose identity has been disclosed would respond to the identity of soso osurauli. Ex Colonel “retired” since 10 years of the Georgian armed forces, it would have taken from service in 2014 for the benefit of the armed forces of the DRC. Thus, it appears that the two aircraft were very likely to be slaughtered and not victims of the bad weather. Since Mid-January reports of a significant incursion of rebels of the March 23 movement from Uganda. Monuc during a press conference reported Wednesday, 22 February, what followed “with an extreme attention” the evolution of the situation” (Congo Intelligence, 23.02.2017).
M23 fleeing to Kisoro:
“Images-videos and photos of 56 M23 who fled the fighting of the hill Songo for finding refuge in Kisoro, Uganda reveal the reality of this armed group. The FARDC have managed to capture 20 during the fighting which started on Monday 20 February until Thursday, 23 February 2017 and which proves the superiority of the FARDC on this rebel movement. The first reports of war we brought back by our colleague auster malivika speak volumes. The Rebels sitting on the floor in Kisoro, Uganda supervised by Ugandan officers. On the field of battle in the DRC, a corpse swaddled in a plastic bag and the traces of leakage through the grouping Busanza” (Magloire Paluku, RadioKivu1, 25.02.2017)
Militants from Uganda in RDC:
“Kambale Musubao Blaise is an avid militant of the MSR / G7. During the last visit of the CENI vice-president to Beni, he allegedly stigmatized the harassment that the National Intelligence Agency (ANR) is applying at the border of the Rwenzori group with Uganda against Congolese people in that neighboring country who would like to be enrolled. Since the outbreak of massacres of civilians in the Beni region in October 2014, several Congolese have sought refuge on the Ugandan side of the border. Mr. Kambale had to raise this issue publicly during the meeting that the vice president of the CENI held with the authorities of the place in the multipurpose room of the Hotel Beni. Which now draws him any kind of boredom from the executioners of his community” (BLO, 2017).
As you can see the M23 continues in Nord-Kivu and create the armed acts against civilians and army. Where they can and still cause problems as they force themselves on innocent and the army themselves. So, M23 doesn’t have a plan of peace, but of control with fear and weapons. As MONUSCO and FARDC doesn’t stop them totally, as they fled again! You can also wonder what the UPDF does as they come from Uganda and is still close on their border and the ones taken by the army in Uganda is small contingent of the ones that left the barracks earlier this year with Gen. Sultani Makenga. There are so many questions, but certain reasons for the acts of brutality and killing. So that President Kabila can continue to reign without any mandate. Peace.
Reference:
BLO – ‘Alerte! Kambale Musubao Blaise en danger à Beni’ (26.02.2017) link: http://benilubero.com/alerte-kambale-musubao-blaise-en-danger-a-beni/
