Congo (DRC): interests in coltan, gold and cobalt behind the violence

Reports from eastern DR Congo are not reassuring. The ongoing war in North Kivu is escalating into a regional conflict that is spreading far beyond Goma. Militiamen belonging to the armed group M23, which is militarily supported by Rwanda, are advancing in the direction of South Kivu, one of the eastern provinces of the vast African country.

The target of the militias. The guerrillas’ next target could be the area bordering on Lake Kivu, that is, the region situated between Goma and Bukavu. News agencies and, above all, local witnesses have confirmed this. We contacted by telephone the Xaverian missionary Father Davide Marcheselli, a Fidei Donum priest who lives in South Kivu, in Kitoto, presently living in the capital of the DRC. Last week he travelled to Kinshasa with a group of local activists to denounce abuses and violence perpetrated in the gold mines of his region.

“The city of Goma was seized while we were in Kinshasa to bring to the attention of the Congolese authorities the gold theft and land grabbing that has been taking place here for years,” Father Davide said on the phone. “But it’s hard for us to return home from where we are now. Since 26 January, the whole of eastern Congo has spiralled into chaos, while the Congolese army is facing a serious crisis. Large numbers of soldiers have fled their posts and abandoned their weapons at the headquarters of the UN mission, MONUSCO.

The conflict is intensifying. The fidei donum priest shares his fears, as well as his hope of being able to return home before long. “It is expected that next Sunday there will be an internal flight to Bukavu, South Kivu, which will land in Kavumu – always in the hope that Kavumu will remain a free place until Sunday…”. Fr Davide’s concerns echo those of many other testimonies from Kivu: The M23 militia is moving into the south of the country and may capture Bukavu in the coming days.

If this were to happen, the Congolese government would lose a significant part of its territory and, above all, many of its mining sites.

A very rich subsoil. Fighting between rebel groups and the military is raging in Nyabibwe. A few days ago, Father Davide Marcheselli was the guest speaker at an online meeting from the DR Congo, organised by the Missio Foundation. Father Marcheselli spoke about his struggle to expose land grabbing and gold theft by illegal companies in South Kivu. The enormous richness of the Congolese subsoil is at the heart of this unwinnable war, which has been raging for at least ten years and which also involves Paul Kagame’s Rwanda. The abundance of coltan, cobalt and gold in the soil of North and South Kivu is driving companies, protected by the Congolese army, to commit a wide range of abuses. In particular, about one hundred illegal Chinese companies operate in South Kivu.

Violence and financial interests. “I have been in hiding for two and a half months in different houses because I was being hunted by the military in South Kivu. I had defended the women workers in the illegal gold-mining camps and exposed the violence committed against them”, Mama Resiki, a victim of the gold-diggers and an activist in the association ADVEM, founded by Father Davide to defend the inhabitants of the area, told “Popoli e Missione“. These stories make it clear that the armed groups want to occupy the whole of eastern Congo because of its land, its gold mines and, above all, its cobalt mines.

Gold nuggets can be found by simply digging along the rivers with amateur equipment, the missionary confirmed. The nuggets are then cleaned, smuggled to Rwanda and exported without providing the slightest traceability information.

[Ilaria De Bonis, Popoli e Missione – SIR]