- Former US President Donald Trump had granted Israeli mining magnate Dan Gertler, a close associate of former Congolese President Joseph Kabila a license to circumvent US sanctions.
- The US government has issued a statement reinstating the sanctions. The US State Department said that it has decided to roll back Trump’s effort
The former US President Donald Trump had granted Israeli mining magnate Dan Gertler, a close associate of former Congolese President Joseph Kabila a license to circumvent US sanctions. The US government has issued a statement reinstating the sanctions. The US State Department said that it has decided to roll back Trump’s effort, as it would go against US efforts to counter corruption and promote stability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It added that the license previously granted to Mr Gertler is inconsistent with America’s strong foreign policy interests. It is reported that Gertler won a special license avoiding the sanctions through intensive lobbying of the Trump administration before he left the White House.
Allegations against Gertler and his companies include embezzlement and corruption and the signing of opaque mining contracts.US sanctions came into force in December 2017, with travel bans and asset freezes, then subsequent measures in 2018. US Senator Jim Risch, from the senate foreign affairs committee observed that Corruption was the leading cause of the underdevelopment & marginalization of people in DR Congo, and the US should continue to use the tools at its disposal to help stop it.
According to US sources, DRC lost some US$1.3 billion in tax revenues in 2010 during the presidency of Kabila, pointing out that Gertler exploited his relationship with the Congolese president to secure highly lucrative mining deals, setting up companies on behalf of Kabila, and acting as a middleman for big deals with multinational mining companies.
