(Ecofin Agency) - NGO Tropenbos International revealed in a study it recently released that urban dwellers in Congo purchase more and more agricultural lands which they do not or cannot use and thus deprive rural populations of their main source of living.

Talking at a Citizen’s Forum on agricultural challenges, the NGO’s head, Alphonse Maindo denounced: “We found out that many lands are hoarded that the elites who bought them but they are not valorized. So, farmers who should use these lands no more have access to them and as a result are left jobless,” he said, Radio Okapi reported.

The phenomenon which affects Kisanganiand the Tshopo province especially should put the country in alert amid multiple land grabs by agro-industrial multinationals.

Land Matrix ranks DR Congo as the fifth African nation with the most attractive agricultural lands, with close to 700,000 hectares subject to investment deals since 2000.

Souha Touré