{"id":596,"date":"2026-02-04T11:45:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T11:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/?p=596"},"modified":"2026-02-04T11:45:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T11:45:37","slug":"we-are-exploited-congolese-fear-losing-out-as-us-makes-minerals-deals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/?p=596","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We are exploited\u2019: Congolese fear losing out as US makes minerals deals"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2018We are exploited\u2019: Congolese fear losing out as US makes minerals deals<\/h1>\n

As delegations meet in Washington to discuss critical minerals, many in eastern DRC fear their country will gain little in the process.<\/em><\/p>\n

A Congolese artisanal miner rests while digging in an open-pit mine, in Mangaredjipa near Beni, North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo [File: Gradel Muyisa Mumbere\/Reuters]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Published On 4 Feb 2026<\/span>4 Feb 2026<\/span><\/p>\n

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Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo \u2013<\/strong> In cities in the mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), home to some of the world\u2019s largest cobalt and copper reserves, eyes are on the outcome of a meeting happening thousands of kilometres away.<\/p>\n

In Washington, DC, on Wednesday, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio will host the inaugural Critical Minerals Ministerial, where delegations from 50 countries including the DRC will discuss efforts to strengthen and diversify mineral supply chains as the US seeks to counter China\u2019s global dominance in the sector.<\/p>\n

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As part of a \u201cresources-for-security\u201d type deal<\/a> agreed last year, the US signed a mining agreement with Kinshasa\u2019s government to secure supplies of components essential to its technological innovation, economic power, and national security.<\/p>\n

While Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi has touted the economic benefits of the endeavour, many in the country\u2019s mining epicentre \u2013 trapped between poverty and armed violence \u2013 see only further oppression on the horizon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are exploited in mineral extraction,\u201d said Gerard Buunda, an economics student in Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, which is a significant source of the world\u2019s coltan, tin and gold resouces. \u201cThere are investors who make us work; sometimes they chase us off our land and force us to work for them in their mines for their own selfish interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to be exploited any more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buunda, 28, who was born not far from the mineral-rich city of Rubaya<\/a>, condemns what he says are foreign multinationals exposing people to poverty and low wages, child exploitation, and environmental degradation \u2013 putting Congolese lives at risk.<\/p>\n

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He fears that the Donald Trump administration\u2019s voracity for critical minerals could heighten socio-political instability in many parts of the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere in eastern DRC, the people who finance mineral exploitation, when they find new mines, buy land from local communities in collusion with our leaders and displace them, and this is the root cause of insecurity,\u201d said Buunda.<\/p>\n

He called on African leaders, especially those in the DRC, to avoid being \u201cthe fall guys\u201d and instead keep an eye on the future of their own rare earths.<\/p>\n

A miner holds newly extracted coltan ore in Rubaya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo [File: Moses Sawasawa\/AP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018They said: please come and take our minerals\u2019<\/h2>\n

With large deposits of cobalt and lithium \u2013 which are essential for electric vehicle batteries and renewable technologies \u2013 the Congolese authorities are promoting the DRC as a solution for the energy transition.<\/p>\n

The US has shown interest, including directly linking security guarantees to resource extraction when it mediated the signing of a peace deal<\/a> between conflict-prone neighbours DRC and Rwanda last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually stopped the war with Congo and Rwanda,\u201d Trump claimed in December. \u201cAnd they said to me, \u2018Please, please, we would love you to come and take our minerals.\u2019 Which we\u2019ll do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Koko Buroko Gloire, a Congolese international affairs commentator based in Kenya, doubts the DRC will gain anything solid from the deal with the US. The market for critical minerals, he believes, is attracting the \u201ccovetousness\u201d of major world powers who are lining up for an \u201cincreasingly geopolitical\u201d battle.<\/p>\n

But at the end of the day, for the DRC, Koko says the benefits \u2013 or lack of them \u2013 will depend on the will of the Congolese leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this deal will allow us, the Congolese people, to have roads from point A to point B, to have clean water, to have hospitals, to have water, I think it\u2019s a good deal,\u201d he told Al Jazeera, urging Congolese leaders to make sure the DRC does not come out empty-handed.<\/p>\n

Before Trump came to office, former US President Joe Biden visited the region, in part to discuss the Lobito Corridor<\/a> railway infrastructure project, which is currently in disrepair in DRC but will connect the country\u2019s mining provinces to Angola, along the Atlantic Coast \u2013 a key port for the export of minerals from Africa to the US.<\/p>\n

According to satellite image analysis carried out by Global Witness<\/a>, up to 6,500 people could be affected by displacement linked to the development of the Lobito corridor in the DRC.<\/p>\n

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The campaign group said it conducted interviews with different social groups last year in DRC\u2019s Kolwezi, and also visited the railway tracks that will be cleared during the rehabilitation.<\/p>\n

It said it had found that the railway line runs through vulnerable communities that have benefitted little from the mining boom in Kolwezi, highlighting a \u201ccomplex\u201d legal situation where the status of houses and buildings along the railway line was disputed, as was the size of the area to be cleared.<\/p>\n

For Global Witness, the Lobito corridor will be a \u201clitmus test\u201d for Western partners who claim that the project represents a more equitable model for resource exploitation.<\/p>\n

Miners work at the D4 Gakombe coltan mining quarry in Rubaya, DRC [File: Moses Sawasawa\/AP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Local communities \u2018negatively\u2019 affected<\/h2>\n

Gentil Mulume, 35, is an activist in Goma, working on matters of transparency and good governance. He emphasises that the Washington meeting is not a dinner party but a call to demonstrate seriousness, particularly with regard to compliance with environmental standards, transparency in mining governance, and industrialisation.<\/p>\n

He believes the importance of a mining agreement between the DRC and the US cannot be assessed solely in terms of its geopolitical or international economic significance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis type of agreement risks continuing structurally unbalanced partnerships in which the DRC remains a mere supplier of strategic raw materials for the benefit of Western powers,\u201d he suggests.<\/p>\n

John Katikomo, a Congolese environmental activist, says the foundations for a fair partnership between the DRC and the US are already off to a bad start, as the deal is \u201copaque\u201d and authorities in Kinshasa have not disclosed details to citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people are misinformed, and there is poor distribution of resources in relation to these critical minerals. Will the population benefit from this?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

For Kuda Manjonjo, a Just Transition adviser with PowerShift Africa, a think tank based in Kenya, Africa holds a disproportionate share of the critical minerals essential to the energy transition, but remains marginalised in global value chains.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis disparity reflects an unfair exploitation model that hinders local development,\u201d he said, stressing the importance of rebalancing the situation, calling for fairer governance, local investment in mineral processing and transformation, and better African representation in strategic decisions on these resources.<\/p>\n

Another resident of Goma, Daniel Mukamba, accused many multinationals of seeking to keep countries that are rich in natural resources burdened by the \u201cresource curse\u201d \u2013 which he believes becomes a \u201ccancer\u201d that is difficult to cure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the examples of Walikale and Rubaya, these are cities that produce a lot of minerals, including coltan, gold, cassiterite, and tourmaline, but the population remains poor,\u201d Mukamba told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Both these resource-rich eastern cities are now held by the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group, which seized control of much of the east of the country last year.<\/p>\n

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A January report<\/a> published by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime indicates that in South Kivu province in the east, opaque gold supply chains continue to be linked to conflict, human rights violations, and environmental damage.<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump shakes hands with President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Felix Tshisekedi during a signing ceremony at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, DC, December 4, 2025 [Kevin Lamarque\/Reuters]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

War means illegal exploitation of resources<\/h2>\n

Despite the US-brokered peace deal between DRC and Rwanda and a separate one brokered by Qatar<\/a> between DRC and the M23 rebel alliance, fighting continues in eastern DRC and has approached regions rich in critical minerals.<\/p>\n

In December, M23 seized the city of Uvira<\/a>, some 300km (190 miles) from the lithium-rich province of Tanganyika. Although they have since withdrawn, several observers say there are clashes not far from Tanganyika province.<\/p>\n

Many fear that increasing fighting could cause the risk of \u201cuncoordinated\u201d exploitation of mineral resources and are calling for a rapid resolution to the conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there is war, there is illegal exploitation of our minerals,\u201d said Chirac Issa, an environmental activist based in Tanganyika province. \u201cThere is no government order to regulate the work of miners. From an environmental standpoint, we fear that uncontrolled mining could contribute to pollution and endanger ecosystems.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the \u201cresources-for-security\u201d US-brokered deal with Rwanda was first reached in June, Congolese President Tshisekedi was optimistic about it, saying it aimed to \u201cpromote our strategic minerals, particularly copper, cobalt, and lithium, in a sovereign manner\u201d, while \u201censuring a more equitable distribution of economic benefits for the Congolese people\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also said it would \u201cpave the way for local transformation, the creation of thousands of jobs, and a new economic model based on sovereignty and national added value\u201d.<\/p>\n

Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC) allied with the M23 \u2013 which now administers the capitals of North and South Kivu provinces \u2013 however, called the mining partnership between the DRC and the US \u201cdeeply flawed and unconstitutional\u201d. He said the plan suffers from a lack of transparency and last week criticised the \u201copacity surrounding the negotiations\u201d. At a news conference in August, he also denounced the \u201csell-off\u201d of the DRC\u2019s natural resources.<\/p>\n

Tshisekedi said last year that \u201cthe resources of the Democratic Republic of Congo will never be sold off or handed over to obscure interests,\u201d and that the country \u201cwill sell neither its future nor its dignity\u201d.<\/p>\n

DRC\u2019s resources, he affirmed, \u201cwill benefit the Congolese people above all\u201d.<\/p>\n

But for those same Congolese in Goma \u2013 watching this week as foreign officials in suits discuss plans for their resources at a formal event thousands of kilometres away \u2013 the future is not as secure as their president might believe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u2018We are exploited\u2019: Congolese fear losing out as US makes minerals deals As delegations meet in Washington to discuss critical minerals, many in eastern DRC fear their country will gain little in the process. A Congolese artisanal miner rests while digging in an open-pit mine, in Mangaredjipa near Beni, North Kivu province of the Democratic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}