Profits from secretive mining deals risk illicitly financing this year’s disputed presidential election campaign in Democratic Republic of Congo, Global Witness said in a new report today...Global Witness’s concern is based on evidence from Congo’s previous elections, when six opaque mining and oil deals lost Congo $1.5 billion – over twice the country’s annual health and education spending. Part of the proceeds from the sales was used to contribute to a government fund for the 2011 election. The rest has gone into private hands and denied the Congolese people money for much-needed spending on hospitals, schools and roads. Each of the six deals involved anonymous companies in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) linked to Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler, a close friend of Congo’s embattled President Joseph Kabila, who managed to win the disputed 2011 poll...Since 2015 more secretive mining deals have been struck, raising the risk of funds from mining asset sales being diverted to finance Kabila’s efforts to remain in power. An unannounced copper deal involving Congo’s state mining company was struck with Glencore and Gertler’s Fleurette Group in early 2015 but only revealed several months later by the press, while a potentially huge agreement with China Nonferrous Metal Mining Co. announced in July 2015 has still not been published. “With a bitter political battle on the horizon, there is a risk that more secret deals in Congo will be struck and that part of the profits from those deals could be used for off-the-books financing to influence or delay the elections,” said Nat Dyer, Congo team leader at Global Witness. “To help prevent this happening Congo must publish the full details of all natural resource sales, including information on the real beneficiaries of the companies involved.”