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The Star
20-05-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Feature: Mist and metal -- coltan grab in eastern DR Congo
RUBAYA, DR Congo, May 20 (Xinhua) -- In the mist-veiled highlands of Masisi territory, a silent war for control over one of the world's most strategic minerals is raging. Rubaya, a remote town in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has once again found itself at the heart of a global supply chain entangled in armed conflict and rebel rule. Since April 2024, the March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group has maintained control over Rubaya's lucrative coltan mining sites. The ore -- columbite-tantalite, commonly known as coltan -- yields tantalum, a rare metal essential for manufacturing smartphones, fighter jets, medical implants, and advanced electronics. According to United Nations estimates, Rubaya alone accounts for more than 15 percent of the world's tantalum supply. REBEL RULE Clinging to the steep slopes of Masisi's fractured hills, the Rubaya mine spills downward like a staircase carved into weathered soil. Sitting at an altitude of about 2,000 meters, Rubaya is not only a vertical economy but also a test of physical endurance. During a recent field visit, granted after weeks of negotiations with M23 rebels, Xinhua reporters had to lean on tree branches fashioned into walking sticks, guided step by step by local miners. Each stride up the crumbling ore mounds left one gasping for air, as thin oxygen and unstable footing drained strength. In contrast, Congolese miners, long accustomed to the terrain, moved with effortless agility, like antelopes scaling the hillside. Across the slopes, narrow mine shafts plunge into the earth -- dark, vertical tunnels that vanish into silence, save for the sounds of breath and beating hearts. Inside, teams of 60 to 70 miners descend daily, navigating each claustrophobic shaft with headlamps and pickaxes. They chip away at the ore by hand, passing the minerals upward in an improvised relay system. The deeper the descent, the heavier the air. To prevent suffocation, oxygen pumps hum steadily at the entrances, serving as lifelines for those toiling for minerals down below. Higher up, the ridge lines are buzzing with activity. The mountaintop hosts a bazaar where traders peddle water sachets, fresh local pastries, flashlights, and boots. Women balance crates on their heads. Boys shout as they drag sacks of gravel. The slopes tremble with movement, a human anthill driven by a hierarchy called the yearning for life. Overlooking it all are M23 fighters, stationed in scattered outposts or patrolling the trails. They monitor operations, occasionally stopping workers to check permits or update registries. An M23 official said around 10,000 miners are now "registered," although the actual number, given the vast hillside and transient labor force, could be much higher. "On good days, we can dig up to 70 kg of minerals. Choosing where to dig and building a shaft is a bit of a gamble. But in Rubaya, with years of experience, it's hard to lose," said one supervisor. Throughout the escorted visit, Xinhua reporters were allowed to use cameras, but interviews were closely monitored. M23 officials said pregnant women and minors are banned from working in the mines, but teenage boys and women were visibly present on the slope. "Guns are not allowed inside the mining zone. That's part of the manifesto of reforms under the M23 administration," said an M23 officer. According to one trader who asked not to be named, almost every child in Rubaya spends half their life working in this mine. "The minerals here are not even buried deep like in other places," said the trader, who earns a minimum of 47 U.S. dollars per bag of minerals on the local market. "CONTAMINATED" SUPPLY CHAINS The M23 takeover has turned Rubaya into an epicenter of what UN reports describe as the "largest contamination of mineral supply chains in the Great Lakes region in a decade." Under the M23, Rubaya's miners have been offered higher wages than under state oversight, part of what observers see as a dual strategy of incentives and coercion. Before the M23 seized Rubaya, artisanal miners earned less than 3 dollars a day. Now, as the rebel group encourages them to stay, their salaries have at least doubled, many miners told Xinhua. "I get paid daily, and our wage depends on how much we extract. Honestly, we've been paid better since they (M23) took over," said a miner interviewed on site. He also requested anonymity. According to multiple UN Group of Experts' reports released in 2024, the M23 has created a de facto "mining ministry" that controls all local output, restricts trade to approved buyers, and monopolizes export routes, as the ore move through neighboring countries to the global market. The rebels have imposed taxes on minerals extracted from the region, such as 7 dollars per kg of coltan and 4 dollars per kg of tin, generating estimated revenues of over 800,000 dollars per month from the trade and transport of 120 tons of coltan in Rubaya, according to UN reports. "The actual number should be much higher," said a villager who requested anonymity. UN reports noted that in addition to financial extortion, civilians are being subjected to forced labor, with many compelled to build roads and transport ore under duress. Local communities were also coerced into "salongo," a term once used to describe voluntary community labor but now repurposed to mean unpaid, mandatory work, for the repair and maintenance of roads essential for ore transport. During a formal briefing to the UN Security Council in 2024, Bintou Keita, special representative of the UN Secretary-General in the DRC, said the revenue stream was fueling the strength of the rebel group, enabling it to sustain military operations while exploiting civilians and undermining peace efforts in the region. Keita also expressed concern that the M23 has established a "parallel administration" in Rubaya, appointing positions such as governors and mining officials, and managing the extraction and sale of minerals through de facto rebel ministries. "This undermines state authority and erodes national sovereignty in the eastern DRC," she said.
The Star
19-05-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Feature: In eastern DR Cong's Sake, life hangs between war and survival
SAKE, DR Congo, May 19 (Xinhua) -- In the war-scarred hills of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the town of Sake bears the jagged outlines of conflict and endurance. The TOWN THAT FELL TWICE Once a quiet transit hub just 27 km west of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, Sake has become both a symbol of eastern Congo's unraveling and a strategic foothold in the resurgence of the March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group. Earlier this year, M23 rebels swept through the area, seizing control after fierce clashes with government forces. As mortars rained down on homes and farmlands, nearly all of Sake's 130,000 residents fled eastward, abandoning their homes, fields, and memories. Perched strategically at the junction of key roads, Sake is more than just a farming town. It serves as a rear guard for Goma and a buffer between the provincial capital and the contested territories of Masisi and Walikale. Whoever controls Sake also controls vital trade, aid and military routes. The town's fall in late January paved the way for the rebels to capture Goma just days later and continue their push toward Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu. When residents returned, they found no signs of peace, only remnants of war. Bullet casings littered the main roads. Though the markets have reopened, few buyers have returned. "We don't even know if this is still our homeland," said Noella Bulambo, a local vendor arranging plantains and tangerines on a piece of cloth. "We try to sell, but people are hungry. We ask ourselves: has this place been ruined for good?" Like most residents, Bulambo fled in early 2024 and lived in displacement camps near Goma. But in February, those camps were dismantled under rebel orders, and thousands were forced to "go back where they came from." In April, Bulambo reopened her small stall in a fractured market. But her town was no longer the same. Across M23-held territory, cash is scarce. With banks shut down, mobile payment systems disrupted, and trade routes blocked, local markets barely function. Barter has returned: charcoal for soap, maize for salt. "People's money is locked in the bank," said a local money changer. "Without cash, people don't eat." FIELDS THAT FEED AND KILL For Sake's residents, the war did not end when the shelling stopped -- it simply went underground. Hills and roads are now littered with hidden dangers: unexploded ordnance, roaming bandits and areas marked with branches where landmines are suspected. "We no longer go to the fields," said Immaculee Bauma, a mother of 10. "There are bombs buried there. Some people went and never came back. Others were raped. I would rather go hungry than bury another child." With farmlands too dangerous to farm, residents have turned to backyard plots and courtyard gardens. Marina Bazungu, 72, tends onions and spinach beside her damaged hut while caring for seven grandchildren. "We fled to Goma and stayed in camps," she said. "But we were forced to return. We are not safe here. We cannot reach our real farms. Explosions still happen." Taoffic Mohamed Toure, a veteran with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) based in Goma, said several children were hospitalized after mistaking unexploded ordnance for toys. "Some of them were just playing in the fields when they found shiny metal objects," he said. "They did not know it was deadly." Farming is the backbone of Sake's economy. "The Kamuronza area of Sake has good farmland," said local agronomist Jonas Mudumbi. "But no one dares plant. Traders are few. If we cannot grow food, we will die." GATEWAY TO PROFIT Today, Sake has evolved beyond a military outpost. Its position along the route to Masisi-home to Rubaya, one of the world's largest coltan deposits, making it a logistical and revenue hub for the M23 group. In recent weeks, people have been spotted repairing roads around Sake and deep into Masisi territory. Bulldozers level dirt tracks while trucks haul materials. "This is how we build a state," said Corneille Nangaa, head of the Congo River Alliance (AFC), a politico-military coalition allied with the M23 group. "Other countries have roads. Why not us?" But according to a UN report from December 2024, the M23 and its affiliates have forced local people to work on road and mining infrastructure. Locals refer to this practice as salongo, a term that once described voluntary community labor, but which now means unpaid, compulsory work. The UN estimates that the M23 extracts up to 120 tons of coltan monthly, generating more than 800,000 U.S. dollars through informal taxation and control of transport routes. As gunfire echoes from nearby frontlines and diplomatic efforts inch forward, the fate of Sake hangs in the balance. Yet in its scorched alleys and crowded markets, where broken lives are rebuilt one day at a time, the will to endure remains unbroken.
Euronews
23-04-2025
- Business
- Euronews
Critical raw materials set to be a key lever in global trade war
ADVERTISEMENT America has been consuming more than it produces for decades now, so Washington may appear on the surface to hold the stronger cards in a tariff war with China. But decades of deindustrialisation have left the US dependent on trading partners for everything from cars and electronic gadgets to toys and cheap garments. Nowhere is that dependency more acute than in the case of critical raw materials – a problem shared by the EU. Just two after the US president declared Liberation Day and presented his list of 'reciprocal' trade tariffs in the rose garden of the White House, Beijing quietly imposed export controls on seven rare earth metals. Readers may not be familiar with samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium, but if you are reading this on a phone, you're holding several of them in your hand. It is not a ban, but exporters will have to apply for a licence for shipments of these metals and related products, allowing Beijing – which subsequently hit a dozen mainly military firms with a ban on the export of 'dual-use' goods, and put another six on an 'unreliable entities' list – to effectively control what goes where. Such heavy rare earth metals are just one of 34 items listed in the Critical Raw Materials Act adopted by the EU last year. Along with minerals like lithium and cobalt, they are essential for electric cars and other clean energy applications, as well as digital and weapons technology. It's no coincidence that from the get-go almost all such essential minerals were on the long list of materials exempted from Trump's scattergun tariff regime. The EU gets all of its heavy rare earths from China and, like the US, is ramping up efforts to secure alternative supply lines of these and other essential minerals. So far it has relied on a diplomatic offensive rather than the strong-arm tactics used by Washington in the cases of Ukraine, Greenland – and even a Canada that Trump has insisted should become the 51st state. The scramble for raw materials is not only about trade relations; it also raises moral questions over striking deals with unsavoury regimes, and what to do when mineral-rich regions are blighted by armed conflict – as they perhaps inevitably are. Related Critical raw materials: how the EU hopes to secure a key element of the energy transition - focus A moral dilemma The EU has struck 14 strategic partnerships with potential suppliers of essential raw materials since 2021, starting with Canada then just months before the outbreak of war on the bloc's eastern flank, Ukraine. The most recent memorandum of understanding was signed with Serbia last July, but it is Rwanda, whose president Paul Kagame marks a quarter of a century in office this week, which has most severely tested the limits of Brussels' realpolitik when it comes to securing mineral supplies. Kigali stands accused of supporting and even controlling the Congolese rebel March 23 Movement (M23) – an ethnically Tutsi group that has seized swathes of the mineral rich eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) including the regional capital Goma – and of being complicit in the smuggling of coltan ore containing the valuable rare earth metal tantalum. Brussels imposed sanctions last month on key Rwandan military officials and M23 leaders – but only under heavy international pressure, not least after the US imposed sanctions of its own in early February and the European Parliament adopted a resolution demanding the same from Brussels and the suspension of the minerals deal. Former members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) and police who allegedly surrendered to M23 rebels arrive in Goma, Congo, 23 February 2025, Moses Sawasawa/Copyright 2025 The AP. All rights reserved Luxembourg had come under fire for delaying the imposition of sanctions at an EU Council summit of foreign ministers on 24 February, where the EU high representative Kaja Kallas said the situation was 'very grave and…on the brink of regional conflict'. The EU eventually agreed its package of sanction on 17 March, targeting mainly Rwandan military officials and M23 leaders, but the EU executive is still reviewing the strategic partnership on raw materials. The campaign group Global Witness issued on 15 April an analysis based on trade data and testimony from smugglers alleging a major Luxembourg-based trading firm has been buying sourcing minerals from the DRC via Rwanda. 'Our investigation strongly suggests that conflict coltan from DRC and smuggled to Rwanda has entered the EU,' said Alex Kopp, a campaigner with the NGO. 'It seems that the EU has not been able to put effective safeguards in place and should immediately rescind its raw materials partnership with Rwanda.' But Brussels appears to be in no hurry to do so. 'After discussion at the February Foreign Affairs Council, it was agreed that further discussions are required,' a European Commission spokesperson told Euronews. 'A decision has not yet been taken on the next steps,' the spokesperson said. Roel Dom, a research fellow at the economics think tank Bruegel, has been closely following developments in the region, and wrote in February that the EU needed to be strict with Kigali to both 'maintain credibility and encourage conflict de-escalation'. ADVERTISEMENT 'As the EU deepens its partnerships to secure critical minerals, the situation in eastern Congo highlights a stark dilemma: how to uphold its commitments to peace and democratic governance while navigating a global race for resources,' Dom told Euronews. 'The case of Rwanda shows just how fragile that balance can be.' Kagame: 'Go to hell' The Rwandan president's response to sanctions imposed so far by the EU, Canada, US and others? 'Go to hell,' he told them earlier this month. 'You have your own issues to deal with…leave me to mine.' Meanwhile, president Trump's chief Africa advisor Massad Boulos met Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi in Kinshasa this month to discuss a potential minerals-for-security deal, a form of leverage the US is also using in Ukraine. ADVERTISEMENT Related 'Dig, dig, digging': Is Trump elbowing the EU aside as he grabs Ukraine's mineral wealth? 'Dig, dig, digging': Is Trump elbowing the EU aside as he grabs Ukraine's mineral wealth? Months of often rancorous talks between Washington and Kyiv appear to be coming to a head, with Ukraine's economy ministry publishing on 18 April the text of a jointly signed memorandum affirming their intention to reach a deal. Ukrainian prime minister was due to travel to Washington today with the goal of inking a final agreement by the end of the week. The Commission has also been criticised for cosying up to Belgrade as the government in Serbia is accused of cracking down on protesters, including opponents of a lithium mine in the north-west of the country that the EU executive hopes will rescue European carmakers from dependence on Chinese imports. Commission president Ursula von der Leyen's continues to trot the globe in search of critical raw materials. Following a trip to South Africa and, more recently, a Central Asia summit where rare earths and other minerals were high on the agenda, she is expected to travel to Vietnam – which by some estimates is in the top three worldwide for rare earth metal reserves. Onshore… Beyond efforts to diversify supply chains, the EU is also looking to bolster its self-sufficiency by onshoring mineral production and processing. The Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) adopted a year ago identifies 17 raw materials, including light and heavy rare earths, as being of 'strategic' importance, setting legally binding targets to mine 10% of its needs by the end of the decade, with processing capacity increased to 40% and a quarter of all minerals being recycled. ADVERTISEMENT Overall, by 2030 no single supplier should be relied upon to supply more than 65% of any mineral. A glance at the map shows how far the EU still has to go. Where the EU sourced the bulk of its critical raw materials in 2023. EU Joint Research Centre Norway, not an EU member but a neighbour and part of the European Free Trade Area, is seen as a potential source. 'Scandinavia is super rich, not only oil and gas in Norway, but also many raw materials, rare earth elements in Sweden, phosphate and other raw materials in Norway,' Michael Wurmser, the founder of Norge Mining, told Euronews. 'We have to find and discover new resources to establish autonomy on certain raw materials, to re-establish resiliency,' said Wurmser, whose firm holds dozens of licences for mineral resources in southern Norway and plans to produce several items on the EU critical list: vanadium, phosphate and titanium. Local residents need to be persuaded of the benefits, he acknowledged, arguing that often they are unaware of where car batteries come from and pointing to cobalt from the DRC mined under 'dire' conditions. ADVERTISEMENT 'If you allow these kind of raw materials to be extracted in Scandinavia under a high level of control, then you have a battery which is really green,' he said. 'If not, you allow also Russia to export its raw materials - you indirectly finance the war,' he said. …and offshore But Oslo recently caused alarm among environmentalists when the government announced its intention to allow the exploration of its Arctic continental shelf with a view to potential deep sea mining, raising fears that opening the seabed to dredging and mining would devastate ecosystems that have already been ravaged by decades of overfishing. Related Oslo defends seabed mining plans amid concerns over environmental impact The first licensing round was due to start around now, but was cancelled late last year after the small Left Socialist (LV) party threatened to withhold support for the annual budget. The future of Norway's seabed mining plans will depend to a large extent on the outcome of general elections in September, but prime minister Jonas Gahr Stoere has already said the forced halt was merely a 'postponement'. Since then, Donald Trump has gone a step further. In addition to an executive order last month to rapidly ramp up domestic production, Washington appears to be considering giving the green light to deep-sea mining in international waters so the US can start stockpiling nodules of mineral ore from the sea bed. ADVERTISEMENT 'Unilateral mining of the deep sea, which is the common heritage of humankind, would be a fundamental breach of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which for over 40 years has provided stability in ocean governance,' said Duncan Currie, a legal expert with the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition. The United Nations' International Seabed Authority – 169 countries plus the EU, but not the US – has agreed by consensus not to licence seabed exploitation without agreement on strict environmental standards. The latest round of talks on the text of such an agreement closed in Jamaica last month. The Metals Company (TMC), a Canadian seabed mining outfit, had lobbied hard but apparently to no avail at the week-long session for opening up the high seas to exploitation – announced on 27 March that it had been enjoying a 'constructive engagement' with the US regulators and government officials and was ready to apply for exploitation licenses under US, rather than international, law. ISA secretary-general Leticia Carvalho responded with a warning the following day that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was 'the only universally recognised legitimate framework' and applied by long-standing convention even to the handful of countries that have not ratified it. ADVERTISEMENT It remains to be seen whether Trump will take any notice of that.
Al Jazeera
24-03-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Mapping the human toll of the conflict in DR Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is facing one of the world's largest displacement and humanitarian crises. Ongoing violence and instability have forced millions to flee their homes, with at least 7,000 people killed in recent months and many more injured. The violence this year has largely been driven by armed groups, particularly M23 rebels, who have intensified their offensive in eastern DRC. In January, M23 seized control of Goma, the capital of mineral-rich North Kivu province, before capturing Bukavu, the capital of neighbouring South Kivu, in February. They have since continued to advance west. The M23 rebel group was formed in 2012 by former Congolese soldiers, mainly from the Tutsi ethnic group. The group takes its name from the March 23 Movement, referring to the date peace accords were signed in 2009 between the DRC's government and the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) that aimed to integrate its fighters into the Congolese army. However, M23 later accused the government of failing to fully implement the agreement, leading them to launch their rebellion. M23 briefly seized control of Goma in November 2012 but was defeated and forced into exile in 2013. After nearly a decade of dormancy, the group resurfaced in late 2021 and has since intensified its military campaign in eastern DRC. According to United Nations experts, Rwanda backs M23 with troops and ammunition. Kigali, however, denies the accusations. The latest round of conflict escalated in December 2024 after peace talks in Angola between the presidents of DRC and Rwanda were cancelled over disagreements about M23. Rwanda had insisted on direct dialogue between DRC and M23, which the Congolese government at the time DRC is home to one of the largest populations of displaced people around the world. More than 7 million people are displaced, including 3.8 million in North and South Kivu provinces in the east of the country. Nearly 780,000 people were forced to flee their homes between November 2024 and January 2025 alone. According to the UN Refugee Agency, since January 1, more than 100,000 refugees have crossed into neighbouring countries, with 69,000 seeking refuge in Burundi, 29,000 in Uganda, and about 1,000 in Rwanda and security situation in Goma, a key humanitarian hub, remains highly volatile, with movement restrictions hindering aid delivery to those in urgent need. The DRC has a population of some 112 million. Before the latest escalation, 21 million people across the country already needed humanitarian aid – the highest figure globally, according to the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). By the end of 2024, armed conflicts, rising food prices and epidemics had pushed 25.6 million people – nearly a quarter of the population – into acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or worse). According to OCHA, 2.7 million people in North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri were already facing severe food shortage before the latest escalation. Looting of humanitarian infrastructure and warehouses has further crippled relief efforts, with large quantities of food, medicine, and medical supplies lost in targeted attacks on humanitarian organisations.
See - Sada Elbalad
05-03-2025
- Politics
- See - Sada Elbalad
Over 1 Million Students Affected by Conflict in DR Congo
The ongoing conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has severely impacted the education sector, with more than 1 million students unable to attend school due to armed violence and mass school closures, Education Minister Raïssa Malu confirmed on Wednesday. According to Malu, the recent escalation of violence by the March 23 Movement (M23)—a Rwanda-backed armed group—has led to the closure of 2,594 schools in the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu. This crisis has left exactly 1,108,962 children without access to education. Of the shuttered schools, 1,483 are in North Kivu and 1,111 in South Kivu. Many have been bombed, destroyed, or occupied by armed groups, turning them into military bases. Malu highlighted the serious security risks surrounding the reopening of schools, particularly in areas under M23 control, where the group is reportedly pushing to resume education despite unsafe conditions. "The ongoing war in eastern DRC undermines all efforts to improve education for Congolese youth," she stated. Even before the latest wave of conflict, DRC's education system in the east was under immense strain, largely due to mass displacement. According to UNICEF, more than 6.5 million people—including 2.6 million children—have been forced to flee their homes, further disrupting schooling and basic services.
