NO LONGER JUST DIAMONDS
Artisanal miners work at the Tilwizembe, a former industrial copper-cobalt mine, outside of Kolwezi, the capital city of Lualaba Province in the south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on June 11, 2016. PHOTO | REUTERSADVERTISEMENT
Artisanal miners work at the Tilwizembe, a former industrial copper-cobalt mine, outside of Kolwezi, the capital city of Lualaba Province in the south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on June 11, 2016. PHOTO | REUTERSADVERTISEMENT
SATURDAY JULY 13 2024
By PATRICK ILUNGA
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In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the matter of smuggling has been subject of grapevine for years. Then reports after reports began confirming it: Hundreds of rebel groups fighting in the east of the country have remained potent, fuelled by money from smuggled minerals and timber.
This week, the United States of America weighed in, raising concerns that that trade is making it difficult to tame the arms flow into the battlefield.
But Washington’s linking illegal minerals trade to continual war isn’t the first. A United Nation’s panel of experts on the Congo, and various rights watchdogs, have said that before.
“The US remains concerned about the role that the illicit trade and exploitation of certain minerals, including gold and tantalum mined artisanally and semi-industrially in the African Great Lakes region, continues to play in financing the conflict.
Read: New proof shows Apple sourcing minerals from east Congo
“It is clear that some traders, sometimes with the support of various armed groups and security services, are transporting and exporting significant quantities of Congolese minerals out of the country”, said the US government statement.
“ In many cases, these minerals directly or indirectly benefit armed groups and leave the country via Rwanda and Uganda before being transported to the main refining and processing countries. These supply chains facilitate the illicit exploitation and taxation of these minerals, often involving acts of corruption.”
In the past, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame admitted his country was on the smuggling route, but laid the blame on the Western merchants, who provide unfettered market to the looters.
In eastern DRC, smuggling, war and illicit weapons trade are crimes that have been going on for nearly 25 years, making hope for an end to these practices slim.
The DRC seems to be finding it difficult to overcome the local and foreign armed groups operating in vast areas where the public and security services are absent.
The problem is particularly complex where artisanal mineral extraction and mining are legal and provide subsistence for thousands of families.
Congo’s mining law simply requires operators to join cooperatives to have the right to mine. This, coupled with insecurity, has created a situation in the east that is difficult to manage.
Washington’s concerns also relate to the extraction, transport and export of minerals, which it says have given rise to a wide range of human and labour rights violations, such as forced labour, the worst forms of child labour, and sexual and gender-based violence, particularly in artisanal mining areas.
Read: DRC, US to go slow on Israeli mining mogul
When, in June 2021, the DRC and Rwanda signed an agreement for the joint exploitation of gold, one of the reasons given for this cooperation was to “deprive armed groups of income from the gold industry,” according to a press release from the DRC presidency.
In Kinshasa, officials called this “the economic response” to the conflict in the east. That deal, like several others, has since been suspended, as the two countries bicker over sponsorship of M23 rebels now considered terrorist group in Kinshasa.
Meanwhile, war has flared up again, and illicit exploitation and trade have flourished, in a region where the sound of gunfire and all the misfortunes that go with it are staggering.
The US government asserts that the situation is worsening due to “control first by the Pareco armed group and then by the alleged Rwanda-backed M23 armed group in April 2024, of a key tantalum mining area near the Congolese town of Rubaya (eastern Congo) and control by non-State armed groups of gold mining areas in the provinces of Fizi, South Kivu and Ituri, among others.”
The armed groups are particularly targeting tantalum, of which the DRC is the world’s leading producer. The mineral is considered a “critical ore” by the US Geological Survey and the US Department of Energy.
DRC itself has tried legal means to tame the appetite by Western corporates it accuses of fuelling illegal mining. Recently, Kinshasa tapped some lawyers to sue Apple, the American tech giant that makes iPhones.
Government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said Robert Amsterdam and William Bourdon, the lawyers representing DRC, are “working closely with us in the action we have taken against Apple, because today we want to be able to trace all those who benefit from (mining) products that are being smuggled out of the country.”
Read: Congo moves to curb trade in ‘blood minerals’
“We are putting pressure on all those who benefit directly or indirectly from products of murders and other crimes,we are sure this will eventually succeed, but it will take time. This will be the best form of economic sanctions for those who, for 25 years, have built their economic model on the pillaging of the DRC’s resources,” he said.
DRC officials say they regret that the cooperation with Rwanda on this issue didn’t last. “We thought that, as neighbours, we could cooperate economically with the necessary transparency. But this time, it’s the beginning of the end,” Mr Muyaya said.
The DRC has activated the “judicial front” among four others in the search for peace. Through its lawyers, Kinshasa has issued a notice against Apple, for allegedly using illegally mined minerals in its high-tech products.
“It is crucial to demonstrate the bloody impact of this exploitation on the end products. Apple, like other multinationals, must be held accountable,” said Robert Amsterdam and William Bourdon.
They hope that this legal action will force the company to reconsider its sources of supply.
Virtually all the experts agree that the best way to tackle the war in the east of the DRC is to take a holistic approach: Economic efforts must be accompanied by a solid political or diplomatic approach.
By way of diplomatic effort, the US proposed and obtained from the parties involved in the Congolese conflict a “humanitarian” truce between Rwanda and the DRC.
This truce, running from July 5 to 19, constitutes “a path marked out for the return of peace” in the east of the DRC, which has been plagued by violence for decades, said Foreign Affairs Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner. The minister warned, however, that “a truce does not mean that we are not vigilant.”
More by this Author
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the matter of smuggling has been subject of grapevine for years. Then reports after reports began confirming it: Hundreds of rebel groups fighting in the east of the country have remained potent, fuelled by money from smuggled minerals and timber.
This week, the United States of America weighed in, raising concerns that that trade is making it difficult to tame the arms flow into the battlefield.
But Washington’s linking illegal minerals trade to continual war isn’t the first. A United Nation’s panel of experts on the Congo, and various rights watchdogs, have said that before.
“The US remains concerned about the role that the illicit trade and exploitation of certain minerals, including gold and tantalum mined artisanally and semi-industrially in the African Great Lakes region, continues to play in financing the conflict.
Read: New proof shows Apple sourcing minerals from east Congo
“It is clear that some traders, sometimes with the support of various armed groups and security services, are transporting and exporting significant quantities of Congolese minerals out of the country”, said the US government statement.
“ In many cases, these minerals directly or indirectly benefit armed groups and leave the country via Rwanda and Uganda before being transported to the main refining and processing countries. These supply chains facilitate the illicit exploitation and taxation of these minerals, often involving acts of corruption.”
In the past, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame admitted his country was on the smuggling route, but laid the blame on the Western merchants, who provide unfettered market to the looters.
In eastern DRC, smuggling, war and illicit weapons trade are crimes that have been going on for nearly 25 years, making hope for an end to these practices slim.
The DRC seems to be finding it difficult to overcome the local and foreign armed groups operating in vast areas where the public and security services are absent.
The problem is particularly complex where artisanal mineral extraction and mining are legal and provide subsistence for thousands of families.
Congo’s mining law simply requires operators to join cooperatives to have the right to mine. This, coupled with insecurity, has created a situation in the east that is difficult to manage.
Washington’s concerns also relate to the extraction, transport and export of minerals, which it says have given rise to a wide range of human and labour rights violations, such as forced labour, the worst forms of child labour, and sexual and gender-based violence, particularly in artisanal mining areas.
Read: DRC, US to go slow on Israeli mining mogul
When, in June 2021, the DRC and Rwanda signed an agreement for the joint exploitation of gold, one of the reasons given for this cooperation was to “deprive armed groups of income from the gold industry,” according to a press release from the DRC presidency.
In Kinshasa, officials called this “the economic response” to the conflict in the east. That deal, like several others, has since been suspended, as the two countries bicker over sponsorship of M23 rebels now considered terrorist group in Kinshasa.
Meanwhile, war has flared up again, and illicit exploitation and trade have flourished, in a region where the sound of gunfire and all the misfortunes that go with it are staggering.
The US government asserts that the situation is worsening due to “control first by the Pareco armed group and then by the alleged Rwanda-backed M23 armed group in April 2024, of a key tantalum mining area near the Congolese town of Rubaya (eastern Congo) and control by non-State armed groups of gold mining areas in the provinces of Fizi, South Kivu and Ituri, among others.”
The armed groups are particularly targeting tantalum, of which the DRC is the world’s leading producer. The mineral is considered a “critical ore” by the US Geological Survey and the US Department of Energy.
DRC itself has tried legal means to tame the appetite by Western corporates it accuses of fuelling illegal mining. Recently, Kinshasa tapped some lawyers to sue Apple, the American tech giant that makes iPhones.
Government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said Robert Amsterdam and William Bourdon, the lawyers representing DRC, are “working closely with us in the action we have taken against Apple, because today we want to be able to trace all those who benefit from (mining) products that are being smuggled out of the country.”
Read: Congo moves to curb trade in ‘blood minerals’
“We are putting pressure on all those who benefit directly or indirectly from products of murders and other crimes,we are sure this will eventually succeed, but it will take time. This will be the best form of economic sanctions for those who, for 25 years, have built their economic model on the pillaging of the DRC’s resources,” he said.
DRC officials say they regret that the cooperation with Rwanda on this issue didn’t last. “We thought that, as neighbours, we could cooperate economically with the necessary transparency. But this time, it’s the beginning of the end,” Mr Muyaya said.
The DRC has activated the “judicial front” among four others in the search for peace. Through its lawyers, Kinshasa has issued a notice against Apple, for allegedly using illegally mined minerals in its high-tech products.
“It is crucial to demonstrate the bloody impact of this exploitation on the end products. Apple, like other multinationals, must be held accountable,” said Robert Amsterdam and William Bourdon.
They hope that this legal action will force the company to reconsider its sources of supply.
Virtually all the experts agree that the best way to tackle the war in the east of the DRC is to take a holistic approach: Economic efforts must be accompanied by a solid political or diplomatic approach.
By way of diplomatic effort, the US proposed and obtained from the parties involved in the Congolese conflict a “humanitarian” truce between Rwanda and the DRC.
This truce, running from July 5 to 19, constitutes “a path marked out for the return of peace” in the east of the DRC, which has been plagued by violence for decades, said Foreign Affairs Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner. The minister warned, however, that “a truce does not mean that we are not vigilant.”
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