At the first Russia-Africa summit in Sochi, the Russian authorities showed their ambition to double, within five years, trade with the continent. Among the contracts signed, the contract committing the Russian railway company RJD to invest in the rail network of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The contract amounts to "500 million dollars", according to the Congolese presidency.

Of the 2.3 million km² of its territory, the DRC has a network of 5000 km² rails dating from the colonial era. This network is broken down into four zones without interconnections. There are frequent derailments - the latest in mid-September in the Tanganyika region.

"This rail network is in ruins," said Thierry Vircoulon, a researcher at IFRI and a specialist in Central Africa. "You have to redo everything: the rails, the machines, the trains, the power supply ... The bill is monstrous, it will take a lot of years to rehabilitate this network and make the investment profitable." Hence the skepticism of the researcher: "This agreement was signed because the Congolese partner is the applicant, but the Russian company will never have the necessary financing.Moscow has signed many agreements that make no sense financially As when he pledged to build nuclear power plants in Sudan, it makes you smile anyway, "says the researcher.

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The case is still serious enough that the visit of a Russian delegation is scheduled in Kinshasa on November 10, 2019, according to the Twitter account of Kasongo Mwema, spokesman for Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi.

However, in the DRC, not only is the railway network in a sorry state, but the railway company is also criticized for its mismanagement by both the Congolese League against corruption and the World Bank. In a report published in June 2019 and RFI obtained a copy, the financial situation of the National Railway Company of Congo is considered "unhealthy" or "bankrupt". A social plan involving one third of employees - some 4,000 people - and work for the rehabilitation of wagons and locomotives have been implemented, and despite this, the authors of this report say they are "highly dissatisfied" with the results and fear that the investments do not survive the end of the project. The World Bank had invested nearly 400 million dollars in the DRC transport sector in five years.

"It's a ceremonial contract"

What advantage would Russia then have to promise investments in Congolese railways? Are other markets - military, energy - linked? "The experience of the Chinese, who have financed infrastructure in exchange for access to the ore, has shown that this type of deal is not profitable." The stakes for Russia are mostly diplomatic. these ceremonial contracts, which allow the Congolese President to tell his people that he works for his country, and the Kremlin, to be visible on the international scene at little cost: it does not cost too much to sign a contract, "says Thierry Vircoulon.

Russia has embarked on a policy of rapprochement with the DRC, as it has done in the Central African Republic, by forming a military cooperation with Kinshasa, noted RFI already in the spring of 2018.

"To do this, Kinshasa has exhumed a convention of almost twenty years, and never implemented, until now.But the ultimate goal is economic and commercial cooperation in the sectors of mining, energy and agriculture, "decrypts the international news radio, quoting a Russian statement.

According to Russian media reports, the DRC government along with those in Niger and Guinea have reached agreements with an agency founded by Kremlin-based Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeev. Malofeev, who faces US and European sanctions for his involvement in the Ukrainian conflict, will advise the three countries on ways to raise more than $ 2.5 billion for the construction of an oil pipeline in Niger and construction of railways and roads in Guinea and the DRC. Malofeev's agency, the International Agency for Sovereign Development (IASD), was created this year and was holding a huge booth on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa summit in Sochi.

With AFP