BUJUMBURA – It is time for the world to recognise the resources of the DRC belong to the people of the DRC, President William Ruto has said.
Through a statement as he arrived in Bujumbura, Burundi, for the Extra-Ordinary Summit of the East African Community (EAC) Heads of States, President Ruto said global demand for the resources in DRC must enhance their well-being and not inflict misery on them.
The meeting called by EAC chairman and Burundi President Evariste Ndayishimiye seeks to address the escalation security in the DRC and the conflict between Kigali and Kinshasa over the same.
The rich minerals in the DRC and the international interests in them have often been cited as the cause of the conflicts in the newest kid on the EAC bloc. It has 70 per cent of the world’s cobalt.
President Ruto also called for the audit by the international community of the industrial supply chains and make sure global production and consumption honour Congolese resource sovereignty and do not profit out of conflict and human suffering.
DRC President Felix Tshisekedi in June 2022 accused Rwanda of trying to occupy his country’s land for its vast mineral wealth.
“The security situation in the east of the country continues to deteriorate, and fundamentally because Rwanda seeks to occupy our land, rich in gold, coltan and cobalt, for their own exploitation and profit … This is an economic war for the battle of resources, fought by Rwanda’s terrorist gangs,” Tshisekedi said.
Regional security top agenda as EAC leaders meet in Bujumbura
The the UN Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of Congo has previously recommended that governments and companies must redouble their efforts to implement international supply chain control standards aimed at ending the trade in conflict minerals.
In 2003, the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the DRC said, “illegal exploitation remains one of the main sources of funding for groups involved in perpetuating conflict.”
It also found that the flow of arms, exploitation and the continuation of the conflict are inextricably linked.
Since the beginning of the 2000s, the UN Security Council has passed a series of resolutions about the illegal exploitation of natural resources in the DRC.
In his statement, President Ruto said history has amply documented the direct relationship between slavery and colonialism in Africa and industrial revolution in the West.
“There is a role for concerted multilateral collective action on this matter and we must not waste this opportunity,” he said.
Ruto was echoing Pope Francis’s call during his visit to Kinshasa in the week.
“Hands off the Democratic Republic of the Congo! Hands off Africa! Stop choking Africa, it is not a mine to be stripped or a terrain to be plundered,” Pope Francis said, referring to the rich resources that have caused the conflict in the DRC.
