On Jan. 28, the Rwanda-backed rebel group M23 captured Goma, capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mineral-rich North Kivu province. The fall of Goma marks a shocking chapter in a long-running conflict in the eastern DRC that has claimed millions of lives since it began in 1996. Deeply rooted in the colonial history of Central Africa, as well as the 1994 Rwandan genocide, one of the core drivers of fighting in the region is the DRC’s vast mineral wealth.
The DRC has the world’s largest reserves of coltan, crucial for the manufacturing of consumer electronics like cellphones and laptops. Extraction of the mineral is associated with deforestation, habitat loss, and pollution of waterways. Along with Goma, in the past year M23 has seized control of many lucrative coltan, tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold mines in the eastern DRC, including the largest coltan mine on Earth, near the town of Rubaya.
According to a group of experts convened by the United Nations, the Rwandan Defense Force is active in the DRC and embedded within M23 units, while much of the coltan produced in Rubaya’s mines is currently being illicitly funneled into Rwanda. In a recent interview with CNN, President Paul Kagame denied the allegations that Rwanda is exporting Congolese coltan, and claimed he wasn’t sure if soldiers from his country were fighting in the conflict.
For the rest of this article: https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/how-illicit-mining-fuels-violence-in-eastern-drc-interview-with-jean-pierre-okenda/