Zach Leggio
In April 2024, M23, a resurging rebel group in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), seized the mining town of Rubaya, which produces 15% of the world's tantalum. Tantalum is an extremely economically important mineral used in production of phones and computers. The UN has since estimated that the group earns $300,000 per month from the blackmarket sales and smuggling of minerals. To discover how M23 came to gaining such resources and influence, including how the DRC could potentially regain control of the region, such answers can be found by examining the history behind the instability and analyzing the way that these groups operate.
Who Are M23?
The DRC has been the site of conflict for decades. Following over 30 years of rule under a dictatorship, the country, then known as Zaire, faced economic turmoil, wide-scale corruption, and a lack of government stability, leading to a breakdown in state authority in many rural areas. The final breaking point came when Rwanda invaded the eastern DRC, chasing the perpetrators of the Rwandan Genocide. This invasion led to the two Congo Wars, arguably the most deadly wars in African history, killing and misplacing over 5 million people, many of which were civilians.
With the end of the Second Congo War in 2003, the DRC government committed to integrating rebel and militia groups into the Congolese military, as well as disarming Hutu rebels who had fled after perpetrating the Rwanda genocide in return for Rwanda agreeing to withdraw from the eastern DRC. The M23 movement, named after a failed peace agreement signed on March 23, 2009, first arose in 2012 after members mutinied from the Congolese military, claiming that they would better enforce peace agreements and support Tutsis, a marginalized ethnic group in the DRC. However, they committed widespread atrocities in the province of North Kivu while occupying the city of Goma, though the group was eventually defeated in a joint effort between the DRC military and UN forces. The rebels then fled into neighboring Uganda and Rwanda, where they laid low for nearly a decade.
In 2021, the group reemerged and ramped up attacks dramatically, which included shooting down a UN helicopter, killing the six peacekeepers onboard. The group also captured large amounts of territory and currently controls several key mining towns. In 2023, M23 became the most active non-state actor in the eastern DRC. This reemerged M23 has strong ties to Rwanda and Uganda- a UN report stated that Uganda has funded M23 and knowingly allowed them to pass through Ugandan territory, and they also reported that 3,000 to 4,000 Rwandan soldiers were fighting alongside the rebels.
Funding and the Mines
The M23 movement has found a plethora of ways to fund itself, on top of funding from outside states like Rwanda and Uganda. The group generates income by imposing household taxes, taxes on goods via roadblocks, and illegally exploiting natural resources, including timber, charcoal, and minerals. A 2003 report from the UN said that the conflict could not be perpetrated without this illegal exploitation of natural resources, placing the issue as key to the rebels’ funding.
Mineral wealth exploitation is key for rebel groups like M23 to continue their operations. The eastern DRC is known for gold and the “Three T’s” (tin, tantalum, and tungsten). These four elements are vital for many electronic devices, including phones, computers, and game consoles. Many of these mines are taken over via killings and mass rapes, such as in Rubaya. The United States introduced legislation in 2010 called the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, which required U.S. companies to publicly make information about their supply chains for these minerals available. However, this just led the companies to stop directly purchasing minerals from the DRC, and instead, the minerals were smuggled through Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi. In May 2024, the government of the DRC sent an open letter accusing Apple and other big tech companies of knowingly abetting in and benefiting from illegal mines, showing that legislation like the Dodd-Frank Act has not helped make changes on the ground.
In October 2024, the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report that anti-conflict mineral policies, such as the act mentioned previously, have not increased peace or security in the DRC. According to the report, between 2010 and 2022, conflict had increased massively in mining regions, particularly in gold-mining regions due to the difficulty of tracking the source of gold, which makes it easier for rebel groups to smuggle. The U.S. Department of State also released statements blaming mineral supply chains between the DRC and Rwanda for the ongoing conflict.
The Future of the DRC
It is necessary for the U.S. to play a more active role in ending conflict in the eastern DRC. Over 30 years of violence in the region has created one of the worst humanitarian crises in history, with tens of millions of Congolese people either killed, displaced, raped, or malnourished. The instability has decreased both the effectiveness and working conditions of mines, harming sustainable development in the region. The resources of the African rift valley region are geostrategically important to the entire world, and China has already invested over $7 billion in DRC mining infrastructure. The U.S. must work toward being a leader in East African development to mediate regional differences between Uganda, Rwanda, and DRC to begin the process of building a peaceful Great Lakes region.
The path to peace is through ending funding of these rebel groups, which means cooperation between technology companies and all state actors that keep rebel groups afloat via mineral smuggling and purchasing. The U.S. is Rwanda’s largest foreign aid donor providing $174 million in 2021, followed by other U.S. allies like Germany, France, and Japan. The U.S. can use this foreign aid leverage to pressure the Rwandan government into ending its relationship with M23– at the end of the day, Rwanda receives more from the U.S. than it does from M23. The EU already has systems in place to identify mineral supply chain risks and conduct third-party audits to ensure that European companies are not buying conflict minerals which the U.S. should look toward adopting a similar framework. The U.S. must lead negotiations between China, Rwanda, DRC, and other actors to create a global culture of rejecting conflict minerals.
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