Obama and the race for African minerals

The United States are helping Uganda to capture Joseph Kony. But their intervention is not a selfless one.

On October 14^th the president of the United States Barak Obama  decided to send 100 soldiers of the Special Forces to Uganda to help the president Yoweri Museveni, a corrupt dictator, to suppress the local rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). This act has to be interpreted first of all as an exchange of favors with Museveni, who, in turn, has sent thousands of soldiers to fight against Somali Islamists of Al Shabaab: while Uganda fights a war to recuperate Somalia, Washington helps the dictator to get rid of the LRA. It should not come as a novelty that the Pentagon has a penchant for Uganda, since in June it has sent 45 million dollars worth of equipment, including for small drones, to Kampala. 

A relative threat

The rebels of the LRA come from the north of Uganda and act on an area that extends throughout different states. They do not have heavy weapons nor can they hope to destabilize the Ugandan government (and even less to become a threat for the “national security” of the United States). The much feared Kony hides with a few hundred fighters somewhere along the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan. Precisely the proximity of Uganda to South Sudan can help shed light on the entire situation. Until now, in the eyes of the Sudanese government of Khartoum, the LRA has been a very useful barrier, adequately supplied with weapons, against Museveni, considered a puppet in the hands of the western powers. In this area, in fact, there is a merciless fight going on between China (an ally of Sudan) and Europe/USA for the control of petrol and mineral resources.

In this sense Uganda is a land rich with  opportunities. Any student of Realpolitik knows that the USA do not plan any humanitarian intervention without a profit and the real stake for Washington seems to be the control of the minerals and of the mining activities. Uganda – and the near Democratic Republic of the Congo –possess diamonds, gold, platinum, tin and many other minerals. Some of which are a group of 17 elements from the periodic table, used in the construction of digital equipment, on which China exercises a virtual monopoly.

Still, one should not forget the petrol and the control of the pipelines. According to Paul Atherton, of Heritage Oil, “Uganda could have several billion barrels of petrol” (source: Asia times, Hong Kong), since in its subsoil hides the greatest deposit of Sub-Saharan Africa, which was recently discovered. This could bring to the construction of a 1200 km pipeline, with a cost of 1,5 billion dollars, which goes from Kampala to the coast of Kenya. Furthermore there are discussions about a new pipeline for the independent South Sudan. Washington wants to be sure that all this petrol remains available to the US and Europe.

The Obama administration insists on saying that its 100 soldiers will be “advisors” and not fighting troops. But one can expect that these “advisors” will extend their operations from Uganda to South Congo, to the Central African Republic and to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

It is in any case not the first time that Washington intervenes in the region. In 2008 president George Bush had already tried. He miserably failed because of the Ugandan army, which – surprisingly – is particularly corrupt. Kony received a tip and managed to escape before the attack was brought forward.