naturalfeature:congo river

In DR Congo, the world’s second largest forest is being ravaged as landless communities struggle for their rights - Equal Times
▻https://www.equaltimes.org/in-dr-congo-the-world-s-second?lang=en

https://www.equaltimes.org/local/cache-gd2/d4/bcf9f6199c7960060ea80aba825ce8.jpg?1526367367

Thousands of logs loaded into makeshift boats at the port of Inongo at Lake Mai-Ndombe stand ready to be transported to Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Inongo is the provincial capital of the Mai-Ndombe province, a 13-million-hectare area located some 650 kilometres north-east of Kinshasa. The logs have been illegally cut from the Mai-Ndombe forest, an area of 10 million hectares, which has some trees measuring between 35 and 45 metres.

“We witness this kind of spectacle every day, whereby tons and tons of logs and timber find their way to the capital either via the Congo River or by road, where they will eventually be shipped overseas, or just sold to the black market,” says environment activist Prosper Ngobila.

#RDC #forêt #déforestation #bois_illégal #peuples_autochtones

DP World May Develop $1.2 Billion Port at Banana on Congo Coast - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-02/dp-world-may-develop-1-2-billion-port-at-banana-on-congo-coast

Republic of Congo, according to documents published by a Senegalese whistle-blowing organization.

DP World signed an agreement with the Transport Ministry in February 2017 giving the Nasdaq Dubai-listed company exclusive rights to negotiate a contract to build and operate a deep-water harbor at Banana on Congo’s Atlantic coast. The accord, released by the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa on Friday, calls for the creation of a company majority-held by DP World.

DP World is “willing to offer a minority equity stake in the port-operating company” to Congo’s government, according to a letter sent by DP World Chairman Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem to President Joseph Kabila on Oct. 4, 2016, and made public by the organization, known by the French acronym #PPLAAF.

The country’s existing ports at Matadi and Boma are inland up the Congo River and are incapable of handling traffic from conventional ocean-going cargo liners because of a lack of capacity and draught, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers study of the country’s infrastructure. As a result, the nation relies on transshipments of cargo from Pointe Noire in neighboring Republic of Congo.

Deepening the antiquated sea port at Banana would provide additional shipping capacity to the mineral-rich nation at a cost of as much as $2 billion and may take as long as 10 years to complete, PWC said. Congo is Africa’s largest copper producer and the world’s biggest source of cobalt.

Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem et DP World, du Golfe d’Aden au Golfe de Guinée… (dans lequel la Commission du même nom inclut jusqu’à l’Angola).

I never left, only my shadow did
by Jean Luc Dushime

–-> Je n’ai jamais quitté mon pays, seule mon ombre l’a fait

I was forced out of my home
Obligated to wander, I slept under many moons
Saw countless sunrises and sunsets
There was nothing romantic or breathtaking about the natural wonders I accounted
But they aspired fear and despair.

“How would I cross this mighty river?” I asked myself standing Chin deep into the Congo river
“How would I reach that mountain on the other side of this swamped valley?”

I was offered a one way ticket for a trip without a destination.

“What was I returning to anyway?”
"To a new flag and a new national anthem?"

All my childhood memories were incinerated into the flames of war.

I picked up 4 or 5 languages along the way
I acquired multiple skills that help me cope with the change and impracticability of life

The truth is that I never left the refugee camp,
only my shadow did.

I languish to find my home and love ones
those I relate and connect to heart to heart.

If you haven’t met me yet
I am the Janitor in your building
The housekeeping lady in your hotel
I am the over qualified doctor who became a cab-driver

Next time you see me, please acknowledge my presence

Happy World Refugee Day

▻http://cowbird.com/story/29480/I_Never_Left_Only_My_Shadow_Did

#asile #réfugié #poésie #migration #journée_du_réfugié