Another Conflict-free Mining Project Launches in Eastern Congo
Last November, Enough field researcher Timo Mueller and the two of us traveled in eastern Congo with the Public Private Alliance for Responsible Minerals Trade, or PPA. Motorola Solutions, AVX, USAID, the US State Department, Global Advanced Metals, KPMG, Resolve, Phuzumoya Consulting, Geotraceability, the filmmaker Paul Freedman, IOM, MHI, and others. One of the highlights of the trip was traveling to a mine in Rubaya in Masisi, North Kivu. We helped analyze whether the mine could indeed be the next conflict-free mining project in eastern Congo, and then helped negotiate with the local government to move it forward ...
Apple makes progress on conflict minerals, should build on work in Congo
Three and a half years ago, Enough and Campus Progress (now known as Generation Progress) protested the opening of Apple’s prestigious new store in Georgetown, Washington, DC because it was lagging behind other companies on combating the trade in conflict minerals from eastern Congo. Today, such a protest would be unnecessary. Apple released its annual Supplier Responsibility report yesterday, and the company is making some significant strides on conflict minerals ...
Rwanda’s Stake in Congo: Understanding Interests to Achieve Peace
Warped and exploitative regional relationships have been one of the most critical factors in Congo becoming the site of the deadliest war in the world over the past two decades. Several of Congo’s neighbors have been deeply involved in the war, and the Congolese government’s deep corruption and bad governance have created conditions in which the army and a host of militias have operated with impunity and destabilized eastern Congo. The Congo-Rwanda relationship, however, has been at the heart of the decade-and-ahalf-long war in Congo and is thus the focus of this report ...
Four Steps for the U.S. and U.N. to Defuse Congo’s Escalating Crisis: Preventing Wider Conflict
The Enough Project has released this policy paper in advance of the July 25, 2013 Ministerial meeting of the U.N. Security Council. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will preside over the meeting to push for implementation of a peace accord signed in February 2013 by 11 African nations and four international organizations. The aims of the accord are to end the cycles of conflict and crisis in eastern Congo and to support an effective peace process in Africa's Great Lakes region ...
HP, Sandisk Publish the Names of Their Smelters, a Significant Step for Cleaner Supply Chains
Four years ago, electronics companies gave us many excuses for why digging into their supply chains to find conflict minerals was too difficult. “This is too ambitious,” they said. “We have thousands of suppliers, how can we know our smelters?” ...
Wall Street Journal Highlights Congo’s Conflict Gold Trade: U.S. Should Sanction Smugglers
This morning the Wall Street Journal published an exposé on the conflict gold trade from eastern Congo, which is worth an estimated $285-400 million per year. The article details the lucrative trade in conflict gold as it is transported from mines in eastern Congo to smugglers in Uganda and Burundi and then to jewelers and dealers in Dubai and India. As the piece highlights, conflict gold is an increasingly important issue for jewelers and the gold industry, as there now exists a “shadowy chain of smuggled gold that stretches from the conflict zones of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...
CNN Op-ed: Congo’s “Terminator” Surrenders, What Next for Peace?
On March 18, a Congolese warlord known as Bosco "the Terminator" Ntaganda surrendered to the U.S. Embassy in Rwanda ...
New MONUSCO Mandate Should Include Programs to Increase Defections, Combat Smuggling
In the coming days, the United Nations Security Council will be debating the mandate of the U.N. mission in Congo known as MONUSCO, the world’s largest peacekeeping force. Based on a recent trip to eastern Congo and conversations with U.N. peacekeepers themselves, here are three ideas that I would want my taxpayer dollars to go toward ...
Apple Makes New Pledges on Conflict Minerals, Should Begin Clean Congo Sourcing Program
Tech giant Apple has come a long way on conflict minerals. In 2010, they were one of the worst consumer electronics companies in their response to this serious problem, and Enough Project, Campus Progress, and A Thousand Sisters protested the opening of their store in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. But Apple has started to turn the corner on conflict minerals with some substantial steps ...
‘What Is Not Said Is What Divides’: Critical Issues for a Peace Process to End the Deadly Congo War
This paper is the second in a three-part-series on the process, leverage, and substance necessary to create a path towards a viable peace in eastern Congo and the surrounding region ...
