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Renewed violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) underscores the urgent need for companies and governments to clean up Congo’s minerals trade. This report, Coming Clean – How supply chain controls can stop Congo’s minerals trade fuelling conflict, is based on Global Witness field research carried out in March 2012 in DR Congo’s Kivus provinces, which have been blighted by a minerals-fuelled conflict for over a decade.
The research shows how some companies have begun putting in place checks on their supply chains – known as due diligence – while others are refusing to do so. Nascent progress in the Kivus risks being jeopardised, however, by a new rebellion instigated by Congolese army general Bosco Ntaganda. The report describes how Ntaganda, a career warlord wanted by the International Criminal Court, seized control of some of the region’s richest mining areas and built up a highly lucrative conflict minerals trafficking operation prior to his April mutiny. Global Witness believes it is highly likely that proceeds from the general’s racketeering are being used to finance the current fighting.
Read more: the Dodd Frank Act