Part 6/8:
Joseph Mobutu rose to power, establishing a regime characterized by corruption and tyranny with blind West support. Under Mobutu, the DRC was renamed Zaire and descended further into poverty as he siphoned wealth from the nation, leaving its people desperate. Although Mobutu welcomed the exploitation of foreign companies, the Congolese populace continued to suffer, witnessing little of the riches extracted from their land.
The structure of economic devastation persisted even after Mobutu’s demise, with international financial institutions taking control of the nation’s economy, perpetuating a neo-colonial status that locked the DRC in cycles of debt and exploitation.