M23 rebels are establishing control over key mineral-rich territories in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), United Countries consultants win warned.
The Tutsi-led rebels, lively in North and South Kivu provinces, win seized key cities since April 2024 – allegedly with make stronger from Rwandan forces, although Kigali denies supporting the rebels and says it is dedicated to a ceasefire and peace talks.
The file accuses M23 of establishing shadow administrations to explot strategic mines and alternate routes.
“This constitutes the most important contamination of supply chains with ineligible minerals recorded in the Great Lakes region over the last decade,” the UN Security Council’s Group of Experts mentioned of their file, released Wednesday.
The rebels are additionally accused of the usage of pressured labour to make better roads, and patrolling mining areas to be determined that that minerals had been finest offered to approved Congolese and Rwandan merchants.
The UN file mentioned M23 became financing its operations by exporting minerals from areas underneath its control, at the side of coltan, a resource outmoded in electronics love smartphones and computer methods.
The added that M23 had created a “mining ministry” to supervise coltan exports from Rubaya, home to 1 of the sphere’s most attention-grabbing deposits of the mineral.
“In this way, the militants collected at least $800,000 per month in taxes on coltan production and trade in Rubaya”, the file mentioned.
The ongoing territorial enlargement has persisted regardless of agreed ceasefires, suggesting M23’s correct blueprint is prolonged-time interval occupation and exploitation of conquered areas, the UN consultants added.
Macron urges Rwanda to total make stronger for DRC M23 rebels, withdraw troops
A world scenario
The UN file highlights issues about how M23’s actions might per chance perhaps most likely impression global electronics producers, which face stress to be determined that war-free supply chains.
Congo has filed prison complaints in opposition to Apple subsidiaries in France and Belgium, accusing the tech firm of the usage of war minerals in its supply chain.
Apple disputes the claims, announcing it requires its suppliers to steer determined of sourcing from the discipline.
Warfare-mineral approved pointers within the US and EU require firms to hint the origins of minerals from regions love eastern Congo. On the opposite hand, a 2022 World Scrutinize file mentioned such rules win failed to end irregular alternate.
Within the period in-between the renewed violence has displaced better than 100,000 folks in North Kivu since early 2025, reaching levels now not viewed in over a decade. This adds to the millions already displaced since M23’s resurgence in 2021.
DRC case in opposition to Apple brings contemporary hope in war minerals crisis
Protests
Within the period in-between, several hundred folks demonstrated in Bukavu, South Kivu, on Wednesday to convey illegal mining within the country’s east, where authorities are investigating claims of widespread illicit Chinese involvement.
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The gathering followed the announcement on Sunday of the arrest of three Chinese nationals display camouflage in possession of gold bars and natty sums of money, in accordance with South Kivu Governor Jean-Jacques Purusi.
Local authorities within the resource-rich province command a total bunch of mining firms, mainly Chinese, extract gold with out declaring profits and often with out precise working permits.
“South Kivu minerals should serve the development and well-being of communities,” read one banner held aloft at the demonstration, known as by pro-democracy actions and unions.
(with newswires)
