DRC: Greenpeace Africa denounces the sale of 19 oil blocks by the Congolese government
The international NGO Greenpeace Africa denounces the announcement made on January 29 by the Congolese Minister of Hydrocarbons Rubens Mikindo of the upcoming auction of nineteen oil blocks across the Democratic Republic of Congo.
An announcement that comes less than two weeks after President Félix Tshisekedi posed as a great defender of the environment in an address by video conference at a summit organized by Emmanuel Macron in Paris.
For Greenpeace Africa, the sale of 19 oil blocks by the Congolese government is an insult to the Congolese people and to the efforts to fight against global warming because among these oil blocks, a large part is covered with a large complex of peatlands.
“Nine of the blocks to be sold off are in the Central Basin, part of which is covered with a gigantic peatland complex crucial to the global climate. Their auction is an insult to the Congolese and to international attempts to fight the climate crisis. but also a snub to donors when they, grouped within the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI), seek to sign a new Letter of Intent with the DRC to the protection of forests “, laments Greenpeace Africa.
This international NGO also recalls that in 2018 Joseph Kabila granted multinationals the right to explore oil blocks located in the heart of the Salonga National Park, after a project to decommission the Salonga and Virunga.
Minister Mikindo would have declared, according to Radio Okapi, that the new oil blocks will allow “the development of the neighboring peoples”. Rather, they will ensure their endangerment and the destruction of biodiversity for the benefit of a small group of kleptocrats.
It should be remembered that Greenpeace (lit. “green peace”) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) for the protection of the environment, present in more than 55 countries around the world. Founded in 1971, by Jim Bohlen and Irving Stowe, after the “Don’t Make a Wave Committee” movement to oppose nuclear testing in the United States, Greenpeace is an advocacy group fighting against what it considers to be the greatest threats to the environment and biodiversity on the planet.
