The Democratic Republic of Congo has extended for six months a ban on the trading of minerals from dozens of artisanal mining sites in conflict-hit North and South Kivu provinces, the mines ministry said.<\/p>\n
The extension adds compliance\u00a0pressure\u00a0on global supply chains for tin, tantalum and tungsten, key inputs for the electronics, automotive and aerospace industries.<\/p>\n
The ban, introduced in February, is being kept in place because of evidence that illegal supply from mines is financing armed groups in the east, according to an order dated November 3 and signed by the mines minister Louis Watum Kabamba.<\/p>\n
The order, which the ministry posted to social media on Sunday, applies to 38 sites producing coltan, cassiterite and wolframite – ingredients for tin, tantalum and tungsten – in Masisi territory in North Kivu and Kalehe territory in South Kivu.<\/p>\n
Rwanda-backed M23 rebels and other armed groups have captured significant territory in mineral-rich eastern Congo.<\/p>\n
An offensive by M23 this year has killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands more.<\/p>\n
Mineral\u00a0wealth has long been seen as fuelling violence in the east, with combatants using coltan, cassiterite and gold sites to fund their operations, according to U.N. experts and rights groups.<\/p>\n
A U.N. report in December 2024 said revenues from smuggled minerals were funding military operations,\u00a0sustaining\u00a0a war economy and prolonging violence.<\/p>\n
The mines ministry order prohibits sourcing and export from the mining sites in question and says they may face independent audits by the ministry or international bodies, including the U.N. and OECD.<\/p>\n
Congo filed criminal complaints in\u00a0France\u00a0and Belgium against Apple\u00a0subsidiaries in 2024, alleging supply chains included minerals pillaged from conflict zones, despite Apple’s disclosures under U.S. law.<\/p>\n
Apple denied the allegations, saying it had told suppliers to stop\u00a0purchasing\u00a0minerals from the Congo and Rwanda.<\/p>\n
U.S. courts have also heard\u00a0claims against Apple, Google, Tesla, Dell and Microsoft over alleged reliance on cobalt mined under abusive conditions in Congo, though those suits were dismissed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Democratic Republic of Congo has extended for six months a ban on the trading of minerals from dozens of artisanal mining sites in conflict-hit North and South Kivu provinces, the mines ministry said. The extension adds compliance\u00a0pressure\u00a0on global supply chains for tin, tantalum and tungsten, key inputs for the electronics, automotive and aerospace industries. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15558,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":4,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,29,3028],"tags":[72,3042,2122],"class_list":["post-18609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-central-africa","category-east-africa","category-mining","tag-democratic-republic-of-congo","tag-north-kivu-province","tag-south-kivu-province"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}