Mobile phones, coltan and fighting

It is a good opportunity to start buried in the ground in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that is a small number of metal, where the war is furious.

This week the global titles were connected directly to the M23 rebels team.

Tantalum on your device weighs less than half of the garden average, but it is essential to the effective operation of a smartphone and almost all other sophisticated devices.

The special properties of this strange, blue-gray and strange metal – compared to its size, having a high load while it works in a range of temperatures.

It also mines in Rwanda, Brazil and Nigeria, but 40% – and maybe more – the global supply of the item comes from Dr. Congo and some key mining areas are under control.

The current fight wave has been made over the months, but the rebels achieved a Sunday attack in commercial and transport transport. The city, the Rwanda Border, is the Center for the Mining Business Region

Last year, M23 has made rich minerals in the east of Congo, taking the sites that take the ore extracted from the Tantalum.

Like scores of other armed groups around, he began to defend the rights of an ethnic group perceived by M23 threat. But as his territory spread, the mining has become a crucial source of revenue to pay fighters and weapons.

Last April, Rubaya, captured the heart of the country’s coltan industry.

The mineral extraction in this region is not available to multinational conglomers.

It is a complex and informal network, but still removed from the ground, removed from the ground, the surface, crushed, clean, tax, sell, sold and then exported and eventually rhymed.

When M23 went to Rubaya, Rebels described what the United Nations described as a “state administration”, allowing diggers and retailers and $ 25 (£ 20) and $ 250 and $ 250 respectively. M23 doubled diggers’ salaries to ensure they would continue to work.

The environment ensures as a monopoly – through arrest and detention threat – that only its authorized merchants are able to do business.

M23 also charges a position of $ 7 in each kilogram. The UN expert team calculated, as a result, M23 earns about $ 800,000 in coltan why Rubayan. That money is almost sure, to fund the uprising again.

M23 Hangs how the ore supplies extracted from the monetary supply of M23 is hung.

The surrounding Rwanda, M23 is seen as a protection, is at the heart of the response, according to the UN experts.

Theoretically is a certificate scheme. Tin is known as innovative supply chains (ITCI) – means that it enters a phone on your phone and that another electronics does not come from the areas of conflict.

In 2010 the US law ‘Dodd-Frank, and companies that buy EU legislation, tin, tantal, tungsten and gold is called “mineral conflict”.

But it has reached under some of the criticism.

Ken Matthysen, with an independent IPIS research team, experts in safety and resource management, the scale of small-scale mines complicate to control what is happening everywhere in local authorities.

The bags of the ITCI label should be placed in the mine, to prove the origin of minerals inside, but often that ore actually said Matthysen said Matthysen said.

Added that there is also a possible problem with corruption.

“There is also a complaint of state agents who sell labels, because they do not make a good lifestyle. The traders walk around the Spanish Dr. Congo and label their bags themselves.”

Itzci has not answered a comment BBC request, but in the past he has defended his record in the past that he has undergone the strict independent phrase show. It has also been praised for bringing prosperity “for thousands of low-scale miners.”

In the case of Rubaya, the Utci canceled its operations shortly after entering the M23 village.

However, the team has managed to continue exporting coltan.

The UN experts map the route circuit showing how it is transported to the RWANDA border. To do this, it was transferred to “heavy trucks”.

Rwanda has pain in his coltan, but the experts say that Unrealified Coltan has been confused with the production of Rwua.

M23 has already participated in the Colza business before capturing Rubaya – Implementing road blocks and loading fees according to Matthysen Mr. Matthysen.

“Many of these minerals went to Rwanda from the M23 controlled area. So Rwanda would come from the eastern East of the Congo and we saw that Rwanda export volume was increasing,” said BBC.

The US Geological Survey shows that Rwandan Coltan exports rose by 50% between 2022 and 2023. Matthysen said that he could not all come from Rwanda.

In a strong defense of the Rwanda position, the Yolande Makolok government spokesman ratified with BBC in his country that there were minerals and refining skills in his country.

“It’s very cynical to take a problem like what’s happening in Eastern DRC, where the persecuted community is fighting for its rights … and (IT) to be able to benefit matter,” he added.

President Paul Kagame also dismissed UN expert reports, throws contempt for “specialization”.

Many of the East of the Congo has conflicts during many years, raising questions about the beneficiary and whether armed groups will come from the ground.

To highlight the link with the theme and smartphone industry, the Congo government presented criminal complaints in France and Belgium against the subsidiary of the giant tech apple, accusing the use of “mineral conflicts”.

Apple has reported and stated from the start of the 2024 due to the difficulties of the conflict and the difficulties of the certificate, among other metals, among two metals, among two metals, Dr. Congo and Rwanda.

Other companies have not been so clear, which means that M23 is taken over more territories, which can be a way to go to devices that trust us from the mines that control themselves.