KINSHASA: M23 rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo have built alliances with local gangs to gain control of lucrative gold mines and smuggle out $500 million a year of the precious metal to finance their brutal attacks, a Washington-based human rights group reported.
Despite M23 leader Bosco Ntaganda’s surrender to war crimes investigators in The Hague this year, his co-commander has succeeded in reviving a brisk trade in “conflict minerals,” according to the report by Enough, which bills its mission as ending genocide and crimes against humanity.
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De facto M23 commander Sultani Makenga has joined forces with armed groups – including some rivals – in Congo’s mineral-rich east, from which they smuggle out gold through Uganda and Burundi for sale to jewelers in the United Arab Emirates, Enough reported in “Striking Gold.”
