The Losing Battle Against Conflict Minerals

Sep 14, 2015 | Natasja Sheriff
View Original

United States regulations concerning the trade in conflict minerals, aimed at reducing the devastating violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), are proving difficult to enforce, as illegal armed groups and corrupt members of the Congolese military continue to create instability in the region, according to a report released this summer by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

"We do see these armed groups are still present and they are most likely still benefiting from the mineral trade," said Evie Francq, a DRC researcher with Amnesty International in Nairobi.

"What we see is there are still very big displacements of the population, people that are fleeing abuses by rebel groups," she said, adding that civilians have also become caught up in army operations against those groups, like the Democratic Force for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).