Does DRC have a monopoly over region's mineral resources?

Author: Samson Kasujja

• 2024-03-06 05:09:00

Following the signing, on February 21, of a memorandum of understanding between the European Union and Rwanda aimed at integrating sustainable value chains for critical and strategic raw materials, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi turned his nose up in protest.

“It’s a provocation in very bad taste,” said Tshisekedi, during a live exchange with reporters on national television, adding that Rwanda should not export wealth that it does not have.

Tshisekedi often alleges that Rwanda plunders mineral resources from the Democratic Republic of Congo, an allegation that Kigali denies.

Looking the way Congolese leaders have been claiming that Rwanda has no minerals; one would think that DRC is the only country with mineral resources in the region.

“Do these minerals stop at Rwanda borders,” Rwandan President Paul Kagame asked in 2017. “Science should be used to find the facts so that, for once, we put an end to speculation and conspiracy theories about Rwanda’s resources.”

Since colonial time, Belgian mining companies were extracting mineral resources from Rwanda. In 1989, Régie d’Exploitation et de Développement des Mines (REDEMI), a public company was established to carry on with mining and exploration.

Documented reports indicate that from 1930 to 1968, Rwanda’s mineral production increased from 20 per cent to 42.5 per cent of all foreign exchange earnings of the country. Between 1969 and 1973, the share of mineral revenues decreased from 42.5 per cent to 21.6 per cent due to a lack of investment.

The Rwandan government has been encouraging investment in the mining sector, with an ambitious plan to exploit the vast natural resources beneath the country’s hills and valleys.

In 2013, Rwanda became the world’s single largest exporter of Coltan (tantalum). The country exported 2,466,025 kilos of tantalum, accounting for 28 per cent of total 8,807,232 kilos of tantalum produced globally. Total revenue from Coltan was $134.5 million.

“Rwanda has not only enough Coltan but of a very high quality,” Kagame said in 2015.

Rwanda Mines, Petroleum and Gas Board (RMB) crossed the $1 billion mark in export revenue generated in 2023, representing a 43 per cent increase from $772 million recorded in 2022.

Kinshasa never acknowledges its internal problems and Rwanda’s concern on FDLR’s operations in eastern DRC, but opted to constantly accusing Rwanda of destabilizing the area for plundering mineral resources.

The accusation is irrational, as Rwanda is a member state of the ICGLR Mineral Tracking and Certification Scheme whose aim is to provide for sustainable conflict-free mineral chains in and between Member States of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region with a view to eliminating support to armed groups that sustain or prolong conflict.

Rwanda’s minerals are certified and comply with international standards. The real plunderers of Congolese minerals are well known, but DRC pretends to be unaware of them.