Congo's Conflict Gold Rush: Bringing Gold into the Legal Trade in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Publisher: Enough Project
Author(s): Fidel Bafilemba and Sasha Lezhnev
Date: 2015
Topics: Extractive Resources, Governance, Livelihoods
Countries: Congo (DRC)
Conflict gold remains a major obstacle to peace and a driver of the black market economy in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. It provides a significant source of income to armed actors, from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) rebel group and Mai Mai Sheka factions to Congolese army commanders, whose troops kill and sexually abuse civilians with impunity, and several of these armed groups trade gold for weapons and ammunition. While progress has been made on reducing armed groups’ profits from three out of four conflict minerals in Congo—tin, tantalum, and tungsten—gold continues to finance armed groups and corrupt army officers and officials in Congo and the region.
Addressing the trade in conflict gold will not be easy, but with a series of targeted interventions it is possible to reduce the scale of the problem and cut into armed groups’ profits. According to U.N. experts, an estimated 98 percent of gold produced by artisanal miners in Congo—8 to 12 tons worth roughly $400 million–is smuggled out of the country. Artisanal miners in Congo work by hand with pick-axes and shovels, largely illegally, due to an over-regulated, corrupt system put in place by government officials and army commanders who take sizeable cuts from the trade. Gold is easy to hide because of its high value in small quantities—half a million dollars’ worth can fit in a briefcase—and a smuggling system has been in place for decades. The illicit conflict gold supply chain moves mainly through Uganda and Burundi, where military officers allegedly also profit, and then much of the gold arrives in Dubai, a major global gold trading and refining hub that has its own smuggling loopholes.