How mining fuels Congo conflict

M23 rebels are in control of the lucrative coltan mines in eastern DRC, perpetuating violence, exploiting workers and enticing foreign investors as fragile peace talks unfold.

- By Giulia Paravicini and David Lewis

Under the watchful eye of M23 rebels in the hills around the Congolese town of Rubaya, a line of men in rubber boots ferry sacks full of crushed rocks up winding paths cut into the slopes.

The labourers are hauling coltan ore, a mineral that powers the modern world. The ore will be loaded onto motorbikes and eventually shipped thousands of kilometres away to Asia. There it’s processed into tantalum, a heat-resistant metal that fetches more than $300/kg and is in high demand by makers of cellphones, computers, aerospace components and gas turbines.

Rubaya produces about 15% of the world’s coltan, all dug manually by impoverished locals who earn a few dollars a day. Control of this mine is the biggest prize in a long-running conflict in this central African nation.

The area was seized in April 2024 by M23, a rebel group the UN says has plundered Rubaya’s riches to help fund its insurgency, backed by the government of neighbouring Rwanda. The armed rebels captured even more mineral-rich territory in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) this year.

The region and its mineral wealth are in the spotlight because M23 and the DRC have pledged to sign a peace deal at a ceremony in Qatar’s capital, Doha, this month. The US is mediating parallel talks between the DRC and Rwanda, dangling potentially billions of dollars in investment if hostilities cease.

On 12 August, the US Treasury sanctioned other alleged participants in minerals smuggling in the DRC, including Pareco-FF, a pro-government militia that the US said controlled the Rubaya mining site from 2022 to early 2024, prior to M23’s takeover.

M23’s advance poses the most serious threat to the Kinshasa government in at least two decades of conflict rooted in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, which saw about one million of Rwanda’s Tutsi ethnic group killed by Hutu militias.