Ambassador Yvette Kapinga Ngandu honors August 2 by remembering victims of the Second Congo War and urging that U.S. mineral investments benefit Congolese communities.

/PRNewswire/ -- Ambassador Yvette Kapinga Ngandu of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) today observed the nation's annual Genocost commemoration, paying tribute to the millions of Congolese killed, displaced, or otherwise impacted by years of conflict connected to the exploitation of natural resources.

The observance marks the anniversary of August 2, 1998, when foreign forces and proxies invaded eastern DRC, launching the Second Congo War, one of the deadliest conflicts since World War II. The DRC formalized the Genocost in law in 2022, and President Felix Tshisekedi launched the National Day of Remembrance the next year.

"Most Americans have never heard of the Genocost," said Ambassador Ngandu. "The suffering in the DR Congo was not random. It followed the minerals. The regions that endured the worst of the violence sit atop some of the richest deposits on the planet. Those same minerals now power the phone in your pocket, the laptop on your desk and the electric vehicle in your driveway. Our history and your daily life are connected."

The United Nations Mapping Report of 2010 documented 617 incidents of serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in the Congo between 1993 and 2003, finding that many could constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, and that certain acts, if proven before a competent court, could amount to genocide. No such court has ruled in the sixteen years since the report's release.

Ambassador Ngandu noted that the Democratic Republic of the Congo has taken concrete steps toward accountability and recovery under President Tshisekedi, including the creation of a national fund to compensate victims, the signing of a peace agreement with Rwanda, and an economic partnership with the United States. She called on Washington to build on that progress in three specific ways.

"First, see the peace through," said Ambassador Ngandu. "The agreement the United States brokered between Kinshasa and Kigali was a diplomatic achievement, but peace agreements are tested after the pomp and circumstance of a signing ceremony. Washington should insist on full implementation and impose real consequences for violations."

"Second, support accountability," she continued. "The United States should back an international justice mechanism for the crimes documented in the Mapping Report and lend its voice to formal recognition of what happened in the Congo. Truth is not a substitute for justice."

"Third, build the U.S.-DRC partnership the right way," Ambassador Ngandu said. "As America secures the critical mineral supply chains it needs, it should insist on traceability and investment that reaches Congolese communities. Minerals from the Congo should fund schools, hospitals, and jobs, not militias. American companies and consumers have leverage. We ask them to use it."

Commemorations were held throughout the day across the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its diaspora communities. Families gathered at the eternal flame at Place du Genocost in Kinshasa, churches across the country's eastern provinces held services for the dead, and Congolese communities from Washington to Brussels to Johannesburg paused to remember.

"On August 2, we light candles for people the world never counted," said Ambassador Ngandu. "We invite Americans to support us in the DR Congo, because the minerals that made our soil a battlefield now sit in nearly every American home."

Media Contact:
Michael McManus
88 Dragons PR Inc.
[email protected]
M 202-215-9254

88 Dragons PR Inc. is registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as an agent of the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Additional information is on file with the U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.

SOURCE The Democratic Republic of Congo