Same Old Story – A Background Study on Natural Resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo

This report outlines the historical development of natural resource extraction patterns in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Sections and of the report highlight how the DRC's vast natural wealth was originally exploited for the commercial benefit of a small number of business and political elites at the expense of the vast majority of the Congolese people since the late s. In the wake of rapid decolonisation in the early s, Mobutu adopted ruinous policies leading to the corrupt mismanagement of the Congolese economy and natural resource sectors, depriving state coffers of the billions needed to effectively run governmental institutions in a country the size of Western Europe. Encouraging direct military control over resources and a "divide and rule" strategy, Mobutu's policies also drove ordinary Congolese to rely on smuggling and illicit trade to survive.