In the press - Alleged embezzlement of oil windfall in Congo-Brazzaville: "the looting of a country"

The + 

On the front page of the press:

's investigation into the alleged embezzlement of oil windfalls from Congo-Brazzaville, one of the poorest countries in the world.

Hundreds of millions of euros evaporated, in what amounts to the "looting" of an entire country and its inhabitants, whose average income does not reach 5 euros a day.

The first part of this investigation, entitled "the president, the intermediary and the millions flown", tells how the arrest of a businessman, Lucien Ebata, a close friend of President Denis Sassou-Nguesso, indicted in France in 2021 for money laundering and active corruption, brought to light "a powerful hidden financial system", for the benefit of the clan of President Denis Sassou-Nguesso, who first came to power in 1979. A case that has started in January 2012 at Roissy airport, where Lucien Ebata was arrested in possession of staggering sums in cash: 182,000 euros and 40,000 undeclared dollars.

At the heart of this alleged diversion scheme, Lucien Ebata's company, Orion Oil, named after the constellation

symbolizing strength in Greek mythology.

🔴 Congolese oil: the President, the intermediary and the millions flown away.

This is the front page of @libe on Thursday

Read the investigation: https://t.co/Gk3BogzGAT

Read the edition: https://t.co/nj2k4mQp7h#AffaireOrion pic.twitter.com/5hWaEGrvGG

— Liberation (@libe) January 11, 2023

A less poetically Seychelles-registered company, with the help of law firm Mossack Fonseca – a name that might ring a bell, as this is the company that found itself at the heart of the scandal. Panama Papers tax evasion.

Regarding Orion,

claims that this company has fueled lavish spending, from tens of thousands of euros in gifts purchased in luxury stores on the Champs-Élysées, to cash movements of millions of euros in Paris and Monaco.

The newspaper mentions a case "which resonates with that of 'ill-gotten gains'", in which members of the Sassou-Nguesso clan are suspected of having built up illicit assets in France, thanks to the embezzlement of public funds, and announces the publication, on Friday, of the second part of its investigation into the "very high placed" French political and economic relations of Lucien Ebata.

Denis Sassou-Nguesso gave an interview to

where he mentions, in particular, this so-called "ill-gotten gains" affair.

Coincidentally, no doubt, the Congolese head of state, who also chairs the African Union committee trying to resolve the conflict in Libya, speaks about what he describes as a "twisted blow (regarding) harassment media and the judiciary in France".

"Where is the evidence of this diversion?", he asks, arguing that "it is not the Congolese who are suing (him), but a foreign association (in this case the NGOs Sherpa and Transparency International), who (have) decided to attack three countries in the world, coincidentally only in Africa: Equatorial Guinea, Congo and Gabon.

🗞️ On the front page of 𝕸𝖔𝖓𝖉𝖊

Elisabeth Borne engages in the battle for pensions pic.twitter.com/0FI1fEIFNf

- The World (@lemondefr) January 11, 2023

Another daily, another investigation: to read on the side of

, this time, revelations about Chinese surveillance systems companies and the way in which they help dictatorships to repress their opponents.

The newspaper cites the example of Uganda, this small country in Central Africa, ruled with an iron fist for 36 years by Yoweri Museveni.

In 2014, the latter received

a new tool to strengthen its repressive apparatus: 20 surveillance cameras, equipped with facial recognition technologies.

Value of the "gift" offered by the Chinese company Huawei, the world leader in telecommunications: nearly 700,000 euros.

According to

, this "gift" was in fact a commercial sample, which finally convinced the Ugandan authorities to order more Huawei cameras, which are now present in all the cities of the country, and in all the streets of the capital. , Kampala.

The newspaper also cites a

investigation , which revealed in 2019 that Huawei engineers had also helped Ugandan authorities penetrate a group on the WhatsApp messaging of Bobi Wine, the president's main opponent.

A means of surveillance which now helps the police to arrest supporters of Bobi Wine and prevent rallies in his favor.

The French press also returns widely, this morning, to the "withdrawal" of the boss of the French Football Federation, Noël Le Graët.

After three days of controversy, Noël Le Graët was temporarily disconnected from the head of the FFF, that is to say until the delivery, at the end of January, of the audit commissioned by the Ministry of Sports on the operation and Federation methods.

"Simple disavowal or end of reign?" Asks

.

According to 

, which reports on the fears of the members of the FFF to keep at their head "a grenade threatening to unpin at any moment and on any subject", no doubt: "for Noël Le Graët, it smells of fir “, and his end at the head of the FFF would only be a matter of time.

is more circumspect: "'everything must change so that nothing changes.'

Never has this famous formula from the film 'Le Guépard' been so topical as on January 11."

The magazine suspects the FFF of having simply sought "to put out the media fire to better start as before, because it is the solution of continuity that won".

>> To read also on France 24: To dismiss Le Graët from the presidency of the FFF?

Not that easy...

Before leaving, we invite you to consult

, which devotes a whole file to the restitution of works of art, in particular those which were looted during the colonial period.

The newspaper evokes a "dynamic which seems inevitable today", even if the return to Greece of the Parthenon marbles by the British Museum will not be for now, since the Minister of Culture assured Wednesday January 11 that rumors of negotiations on this subject, which has pitted the two countries against each other for nearly two centuries, were "unfounded".

It's all just maybe a matter of time.

In the meantime, why not feast your eyes on new shots from the James Webb Telescope of a young star cluster, which lies more than 200,000 light-years from our planet.

.

Find the Press Review every morning on France 24 (Monday to Friday, at 7:20 a.m. and 9:20 a.m. Paris time).

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