Mobutu's Stolen Zaire Aid Fortune

During the 1980s, Zaire's president Mobutu Sese Seko received an official presidential budget that exceeded the combined budget for the country’s roads, schools, and hospitals. During the Cold War, he used his pro-West position to obtain Western development aid, then diverted and benefited from it while ruling Zaire from 1965 to 1997. According to Transparency International in 2004, Mobutu stole about US$5 billion, making him one of the most corrupt leaders of his era. Rivals finally forced him out in 1997, and he fled the country before dying shortly afterward of cancer.

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