For more than 14-million dead and displaced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), promises of prosperity from a single continental market ring hollow.
President Félix Tshisekedi’s message to the world from the podium of the recent 80th UN General Assembly struck at the heart of Africa’s economic ambitions and the vision behind the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
In his address Tshisekedi highlighted that the illicit exploitation of critical minerals was one of the major sources of conflict in Africa. He warned that without comprehensive due diligence and the traceability of mineral supply chains, these resources would continue to fuel conflict rather than continental prosperity.
The DRC offers a reminder that without peace the AfCFTA’s promises of transformative integration and unimpeded trade across the continent will remain a distant possibility.
The stark reality is such that trade, jobs, manufacturing and investment simply cannot take root amid persistent violence and instability. With eastern DRC still gripped by armed conflict, the region epitomises the dangers of ignoring the link between peace, security and economic progress.
With eastern DRC still gripped by armed conflict, the region epitomises the dangers of ignoring the link between peace, security and economic progress.
Over the past three decades, cycles of violence have left more than 7-million people internally displaced. Countless communities have been massacred and subjected to sexual violence and the systematic destruction of their livelihoods. Hospitals, schools, infrastructure and markets have repeatedly been targeted or abandoned, while millions face chronic food insecurity and limited access to health care.
The humanitarian impact is staggering. Deaths from violence and preventable disease combine into one of the world’s deadliest, yet most underreported, emergencies.
Children in eastern DRC are more likely to be out of school, malnourished or living in displacement than anywhere else in Africa. The region’s women have borne some of the worst atrocities, enduring unspeakable crimes.
But the devastation is not merely humanitarian; it is developmental too. The war has gutted local economies and shredded national budgets. The fall of Goma to M23 rebels in January has delivered a devastating blow to economic activity in the eastern DRC, crippling what was once a vibrant regional commercial and logistical hub.
Investors and African businesses see the price of insecurity not only in human misery but also in delayed projects, lost markets and wasted potential. According to UN estimates, the economic cost of conflict in the DRC (factoring in lost productivity, humanitarian aid and foregone investment) runs into the tens of billions of dollars annually.
With rebel forces seizing control of key border crossings and transportation corridors, legitimate trade with neighbours has been virtually paralysed, paving the way for illicit trade and the proliferation of local actors invested in the maintenance of discord.
Businesses have shuttered or fled, informal markets have contracted due to insecurity and looting, and cross-border commerce — critical for food supplies and livelihoods — has been severely disrupted.
Mineral-rich territories like the DRC should power African prosperity, but instead they bankroll war economies, financed by illicit actors and cross-border trafficking.
The influx of displaced people, with the flight of banking and service sectors, has deepened Goma’s economic crisis, setting back development gains by years and eroding investor confidence throughout the entire Great Lakes region.
Mineral-rich territories like the DRC should power African prosperity, but instead they bankroll war economies, financed by illicit actors and cross-border trafficking. The DRC also serves as an example of the detrimental side of prioritising stability over sustainable peace.
Decades of uneasy ceasefires, security clampdowns and international peacekeeping deployments have repeatedly failed to address the underlying drivers of conflict — such as exclusion, weak governance and illicit resource exploitation — allowing cycles of violence to persist.
Consequently, the eastern DRC remains trapped in a state of chronic insecurity and conflict actors (state and nonstate) continue to profit from mineral smuggling and extortion, while the humanitarian crises worsen and millions are barred from meaningful economic participation or access to basic services.
Cautionary tale for the continent and AfCFTA
The DRC is a cautionary tale for the continent and the architects of the AfCFTA, yet it is far from an isolated case regarding the destructive toll of violence on development. Across the continent, regions such as the Sahel, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan, Libya, the Central African Republic and Mozambique continue to grapple with protracted conflict and instability.
The challenges faced in the DRC mirror a broader, deeply entrenched crisis that threatens to derail Africa’s collective pursuit of growth, integration and peace. Without a true commitment to peace that dismantles war economies and builds accountable institutions, short-term stability efforts only preserve a status quo of suffering and squander Africa’s enormous economic potential.
Implementing the AfCFTA without addressing underlying insecurities is impossible; peace and trusted governance are not optional, they are prerequisites. Africa’s ambitions for integrated growth, jobs and prosperity will remain hollow until the continent’s leaders commit, above all, to making the DRC’s tragedy the catalyst for finally aligning economic dreams with the hard realities on the ground.
This is the uncomfortable truth that must reshape Africa’s trajectory — and the only honest foundation for the AfCFTA’s promise.
• Lalbahadur, a political analyst, is founding director of Ahimsa Africa and a former foreign policy programme manager at the SA Institute of International Affairs.
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