Congo burns and Belgium looks elsewhere

There was a time when the new foreign ministers began their mandate with a note on Africa. When Louis Michel (MR) held this post, the Congo was marked by dramatic events. An alliance of international African forces brought down the dictator Mobutu and installed Laurent-Désiré Kabila in his place. Behind the scenes, Belgian diplomats successfully activated to end the war, and constitutionalists participated in the drafting of the new democratic constitution. In short, the Belgian government at the time was actively engaged in Congo. Which did not fail to assert criticisms: Louis Michel was accused of having “appointed” Kabila son, Joseph, as a new president.
Currently, foreign forces are growing again in the east of the country. Every day for 30 years in Congo, people are murdered, raped women, kidnapped children, reduced villages in ashes, livestock and looted harvests. Speculations on the future of the president, Félix Tshisekedi, is going well.
Wever’s government is all the point. The words “Congo” and “Africa” are nowhere in the government agreement. The latest foreign minister of the previous government, Bernard Quintin, an experienced Africanist and diplomat, is now in charge of the interior. His successor is the bourgmestre of Namur. What does he know about Africa? Does it have the slightest interest in the three African countries colonized by Belgium, two of which are currently doing war? Does it measure the importance of the African continent in the current geopolitical context, if only with regard to raw materials?
We don’t know anything about it. We know, on the other hand, that during the seven months of negotiations on training, there was never absolutely never question of Africa, Congo, Rwanda or Burundi. This is what happens when a bunch of mayor or aspiring mayor claims to be able to direct the country; When the largest government party seeks only, shamelessly, to impose its own nationalist program and to split federal cultural institutions – among which the Africamuseum, located in Tervuren, which is the subject of animated discussions, but whose negotiators seem to have never heard.
However, there was a time when the Flemish nationalists were seriously interested in their fellow people Africans: Maurice Coppieters, Nelly Maes or Bert Anciaux, to name a few. But nowadays, even in search of, no one arrives at the ankle. On reflection, the negotiators still mentioned the question of development cooperation. These gentlemen believe that the credits allocated there are too important. The budget is therefore amputated by 25 % and the number of countries concerned is reduced – those which remain therefore size the part of the lion. The list must be arrested by the very competent minister, the bourgmestre of Namur. Will the Congo continue to appear there? If so, in which areas will Belgium be committed to? It is to be feared that the subject does not make much noise: it is not electorally paid.
To reread
An official visit to the Congo which should not take on the air of electoral propaganda