Chapter Four
Coltan Exploration in Eastern
Democratic Republic of the
Congo (DRC)
Celine Moyroud andjohn Kafunga
Introduction
Until the flurry of recent peace initiatives, most importantly the inter-
Congolese Dialogue that ended inconclusively in Sun City, South Africa, and
the July ZOO2 agreement between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and
Rwanda, the DRC was in the midst of one of the most sweeping and wide-rang-
ing conflicts in post-colonial Africa. Despite these agreements and the engage-
ment of the United Nations through a monitoring mission (Mission de I'organ-
isation des Nations Unies au Congo, or MONUC), peace is not yet secure in this
vast country. At the height of the war the conflict developed an international
character, bringing in many regional actors, defying regional and international
mediation. The DRC now ranks 15Znd in the UNDP Human Development index
of 174 countries, despite the existence of considerable natural resources, such
as diamonds, hydroelectric power, wood and strategic minerals.
In particular, coltan - a combination of Columbium-tantaiite - is among
the strategic minerals found in the Congo and forms the basis of a high-tech
global commodity chain. With 80% of global coltan reserves located in
Africa, most of it in the DRC, a number of analysts have argued that intema-
tional demand for the metal has become one of the driving forces behind the
war in the DRC and the presence of rival militias.' In this sense, coltan has
come to be identified as one of the major resources plundered from the DRC
by Congolese rebels and their allies, Rwanda and Uganda.
The illegal exploitation of coltan in the DRC is at the core of thjs chapter as
it seeks to assess the possible causal relationship between the exploitation of
natural resources and conflict manifestations in this country. For a number of
practical and analytical reasons, although coltan is present in most pans of
eastern Congo, the chapter will primarily look at coltan extraction and
exploitation in North and South Kivu provinces. From the start the research
team assumed that coltan was not a root cause of conflict in the DRC but,
rather, a conflict-sustaining or aggravating factor that has contributed to con-
flict within the larger conflict system operating within the DRC.