Utrecht and Dakar — “Most reporting on the conflict is using questionable framings, suggesting it is purely driven by a desire to plunder the region’s rich mineral resources.” The capture of North Kivu’s provincial capital, Goma, by the M23 armed group last month has multiplied international coverage of the forgotten crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Yet most reporting on the conflict is using mistaken framings, suggesting it is purely driven by a desire to plunder the region’s rich mineral resources.
The conflict minerals narrative contains several tropes: Proponents claim that the M23 and its Rwandan allies launched the insurgency to loot large quantities of minerals from neighbouring DRC; that Western electronics or tech corporations buy violently exploited minerals and thus become complicit in the conflict; and that the war is driven by competition for so-called critical minerals required by the energy transition.
There is nothing new or surprising about blaming the M23 crisis on greed for resources. Conflict minerals have been the primary lens through which international media have approached conflicts in eastern DRC for almost three decades. This story has an intuitive appeal: It offers a clear narrative with a primary and very tangible culprit (Western multinationals), a direct link to the public (who own a laptop or mobile phone), and a neat solution: Stop buying ‘conflict minerals’ and sanction wrongdoers.
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