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FILE PHOTO: Members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) stand guard against the M23 rebel group in Lubero, North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo October 27, 2024.
Rwanda-backed rebels seize towns in Congo
The rebel March 23 Movement, aka M23, reportedly supported by Rwanda,captured the strategic town of Masisi in the Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province from the army and pro-government militias on Saturday. Masisi, population 40,000, sits just 50 miles north of Goma, the provincial capital, home to two million Congolese — and is a key sanctuary for refugees.
The takeover comes just two days after M23 captured Katale, another town in North Kivu. Since 2021, the group has occupied vast areas of eastern Congo, displacing hundreds of thousands of refugees, and local leaderswarn of an escalating humanitarian crisis.
The Congo accuses Rwanda of using the rebels to loot its minerals including gold, cobalt, and tantalum, a charge Kigali denies. In December, Congo announced it was suing Apple for using such “blood minerals.” In response, Apple has stopped accepting tin, tantalum, tungste, and gold from both countries.
Meanwhile, talks between DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagamewere canceled on Dec. 15 over disagreements about the terms of a proposed peace deal, and there is no sign they are resuming. We’re watching how far M23 goes, as even the scant attention paid to central Africa in Western capitals may diminish under a tumultuous Trump administration.
A Congolese soldier stands guard as he waits for the ceremony to repatriate the two bodies of South African soldiers killed in the ongoing war between M23 rebels and the Congolese army in Goma, North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo February 20, 2024.
Congo demands world boycott of Rwanda’s mineral exports
The Democratic Republic of Congo has called for a global embargo of mineral exports from Rwanda, which it accuses of backing rebel groups along their shared frontier. Congo says that because Rwanda allegedly uses violent proxies to seize mines in Congo before exporting their products as though they came from Rwanda, all Rwandan ore should be considered “blood minerals.”
Two weeks ago, the M23 rebels, which have strong ties to Rwanda’s ethnic Tutsi elites, seized the mining town of Rubaya, a town in eastern Congo with deposits of the mineral tantalum. Tantalum is used in all sorts of high-tech applications, from the camera in your phone to the semiconductor chips crucial to the AI revolution, but it’s hard to find, and Congo is one of the richest sources in the world. In a letter last month, the Congolese government directly confronted Apple over its alleged use of pilfered tantalum, among other minerals, but the tech giant says an internal review revealed no blood minerals in its supply chains.
The logic of the boycott is simple: If Rwanda cannot profit from its alleged support of armed rebel groups in eastern Congo, it has significantly less incentive to fund the violence there. Nearly 6 million Congolese have already had to flee fighting, with 1.4 million swelling the encircled city of Goma. If the world heeds Congo’s call — and no major economy thus far has assented — it could tackle one of the root causes of this long-running tragedy.