African Minerals: The curse and tragedy Democratic Republic of Congo

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Africa’s mineral wealth has repeatedly attracted external interests that reshaped political destinies through violence

Natural resources are universally regarded as engines of growth, prosperity, and national power. In countries such as Norway, Canada, Chile, and Australia, oil, copper, and other minerals have financed welfare states, industrialization, and institutional stability. In Africa, however, natural resources—particularly minerals—have too often become instruments of bloodshed, foreign domination, and internal collapse. Nowhere is this tragedy more visible than in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Africa’s mineral wealth has repeatedly attracted external interests that reshaped political destinies through violence. From the diamond rush in Kimberley and the gold discoveries at the Witwatersrand that entrenched white economic dominance in South Africa, to the destabilization of post-independence African states, resources have proven deadly. Leaders who attempted to assert control over national wealth—Patrice Lumumba in Congo, Thomas Sankara in Burkina Faso, and Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana—were removed, assassinated, or overthrown, often through alliances between foreign powers and local collaborators promised power in exchange for compliance.

Mining gold in Congo. [Courtesy photo]

Lumumba’s fate marked a decisive turning point for Congo. His insistence that Congolese minerals serve Congolese development triggered his overthrow and murder in 1961. What followed was the rise of Mobutu Sese Seko wa Za Banga, a ruler tolerated and protected by Western powers because he guaranteed access to Congo’s minerals. Under Mobutu, the Congolese state was transformed into a system of plunder: institutions were hollowed out, resources personalized, and corruption normalized. Minerals flowed out; weapons flowed in.

Today, the DRC remains one of the world’s most resource-rich countries, holding about 70% of global cobalt reserves, as well as vast deposits of coltan, copper, gold, tin, tungsten, diamonds, and uranium—minerals critical to smartphones, electric vehicles, aerospace, and military technology. Yet this abundance has not produced development. Instead, it has financed war.

According to United Nations expert panels, over 120 armed groups have operated in eastern Congo over the past three decades. These groups do not fight for ideology or national power; they fight for control of mineral-rich territory. The M23 rebel group, led politically by Bertrand Bisimwa and militarily by Sultani Makenga, has controlled strategic coltan zones in North Kivu, particularly the Rubaya mining area. UN estimates indicate that M23 alone generates approximately USD 800,000 per month from mineral taxation.

Mining gold in Congo. [Courtesy photo]

Other armed groups include the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), led by Musa Baluku, active in North Kivu and Ituri and linked to gold mining and timber trafficking; the FDLR, with roots in Rwanda, extracting gold and charcoal; CODECO militias in Ituri controlling gold fields; and numerous Mai-Mai factions, including the Nduma Defense of Congo (NDC-R), led by Guidon Shimiray, operating gold and cassiterite mines in Walikale. Combined, these groups finance themselves through illegal mining, smuggling, extortion, and arms-for-minerals exchanges.

The tragedy deepens with the involvement of African states themselves. UN investigations during and after the Second Congo War documented systematic plunder by neighboring countries. Uganda was found to have extracted Congolese gold, timber, coffee, and other resources during its military occupation between 1998 and 2003. In 2022, the International Court of Justice ruled against Uganda and ordered it to pay USD 325 million in reparations to the DRC for violations of international law and resource exploitation.

Rwanda, despite limited domestic mineral deposits, has consistently exported volumes of coltan and gold far exceeding its production capacity—clear evidence, according to UN panels, of smuggling from eastern Congo. Burundi has been identified as a transit corridor for Congolese gold. Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Angola were also implicated in UN reports for exploiting Congolese diamonds, timber, and minerals during wartime deployments. Timber plunder—often overlooked—has financed armed groups while devastating Congo’s forests, with documented cases of hardwood logs removed under military protection.

Between USD 1 billion and USD 1.5 billion worth of minerals are estimated to leave Congo illegally every year. Gold smuggled through Uganda alone was valued at USD 2.25 billion between 2020 and 2021, despite Uganda having minimal gold reserves of its own. Since 1996, Congo’s wars have caused over six million deaths, directly and indirectly—the deadliest conflict since World War II.

Why Does the War Never End?

Political scientist James D. Fearon and conflict scholars such as Tossinger, in Why Nations Go to War, offer a sobering explanation: wars persist where the economic benefits of violence outweigh the incentives for peace, where strategic resources alter power balances, and where state authority is weak.

Congo meets all these conditions. As Tossinger observes, “War becomes rational where economic gain replaces political vision.” In Congo, peace threatens profits.

Villagers fleeing conflict zones. [Courtesy photo]

This explains why Congolese presidents repeatedly prioritize the military elimination of rebel groups rather than negotiations. These militias are not liberation movements; they are business enterprises of violence. Disarmament without state control of minerals merely creates space for new armed actors.

Stabilizing Congo therefore requires, first and foremost, a strong, professional national army—disciplined, unified, well-paid, and loyal to the state rather than factions. Strategic mining areas must be secured like oil fields in sovereign states. Artisanal mining must be formalized, contracts made transparent, and mineral processing localized to reduce raw exports.

 These militias are not liberation movements; they are business enterprises of violence. [Courtesy photo]

Regionally, African states must abandon duplicity and enforce borders against smuggling, reviving Pan-Africanism as collective protection of sovereignty rather than empty slogans. Internationally, corporations and supply chains that profit from conflict minerals must face sanctions, not excuses.

The wars of Sudan and South Sudan over oil and gold, Nigeria’s Niger Delta conflict over oil, Libya’s collapse around oil control, and the diamond wars in Sierra Leone and Angola all tell the same story: resources without institutions become weapons. Congo is not uniquely cursed—it is uniquely exploited.

Until Congo’s minerals serve development rather than death, the tragedy will persist. And until Africa stops participating in its own plunder, Pan-Africanism will remain rhetoric, not reality.

About the Writer

Sande Evan Ndahura is a Ugandan writer, poet, and public affairs investigator known for analytical work on African political economy, conflict systems, and resource governance. Through research commentaries, policy analyses, and investigative writings, he examines how natural resources intersect with power, sovereignty, and foreign influence in post-colonial Africa, advocating evidence-based reform, African accountability, and institutional renewal.