Congo’s gamble for Western backing

Tshisekedi participating in a summit in Lobito, Angola, last December. — Eric Lee/The New York Times

IN his first interview since an armed group backed by Rwanda seized swaths of his country’s territory this year, Congo President Felix Tshisekedi offered the United States and Europe a stake in his country’s vast mineral wealth, a sector currently dominated by China.

Congo is considered to be among the world’s wealthiest countries in terms of natural resources. It provides much of the world’s coltan, which is used to power smartphones and computers. It also holds more than half of the world’s cobalt reserves, used in electric vehicles.