DRC – 25 June 2015

Uganda, DR Congo to meet over disputed border point
Ugandan and Congolese authorities are set to meet today Tuesday over the disputed border point at Vurra in Arua district.
The conflict pitting Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo stems from the international boundary drawn during the colonial era.
Last week both parties failed to reach an understanding during a meeting held at Vurra border post.
New Vision

Democratic Republic of Congo’s National Assembly Passes Oil Code
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s National Assembly voted for a new oil code amid a flurry of legislation passed on the last day of its spring session on Monday, said Aubin Minaku, the assembly president. The new law “will establish transparency by defining the terms for granting hydrocarbon rights,” Minaku said in his closing speech to lawmakers, according to a transcript published on the assembly’s website Tuesday. It will also “assure the security of investments, and put in place a fiscal regime that will allow the Congolese state to profit from its hydrocarbons resources.”
Bloomberg

Lack of electricity hinders DR Congo mining sector
The minerals in the south-eastern Katanga region represent potential riches for the Democratic Republic of Congo, but a lack of electricity is preventing the country from fully exploiting them. In Katanga’s regional capital Lubumbashi, power cuts regularly shut down the furnace at the STL factory that extracts cobalt, copper and zinc oxide from a nearby mountain of slag.
It takes 34 megawatts of electricity for the site’s giant furnace to operate at full capacity, but DR Congo’s national power company Snel is only supplying 24 megawatts. “We are living in a situation of continual stress and it’s hell,” said Jean-Pol Tavernier, STL’s maintenance director.
The Nation