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White Elephant Showcases DRC’s Corruption Legacy

By SG Editor·
Group of Sudanese leaders at a formal event, emphasizing peace and unity.

Sudanese officials gather to discuss peace efforts amid ongoing conflict.


Congo’s second city of Lubumbashi, a blue glass-and-steel shopping mall towers over the dust-blown skyline, dwarfing the surrounding colonial-era architecture. In 2018, then President Joseph Kabila was guest of honor at the development’s opening ceremony, using a pair of golden scissors to cut a ribbon printed in Congo’s national colors of yellow, red and blue. Six years later, the $25 million Hypnose complex stands as a monument to the corruption that has long dogged the vast central African nation. It illustrates how money intended to develop a national ID system was leveraged to serve a small number of elite with close ties to former President Kabila, according to a joint investigation by Bloomberg News.
 

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