Updated on
Summary Gold is now primary source of income for armed groups in Congo.
According to a report published Thursday by the Enough Project the gold ends up in jewelry stores across the world.The essential revenue for armed groups comes from gold today. Of course there are other sources like logging, but gold has become the primary source for groups like the FDLR, said Fidel Bafilemba, Enoughs researcher in eastern Congo.Because of the United States Dodd-Frank law requiring companies to track the origin of the minerals they use, armed groups have been unable to profit from the exploitation of tin, tungsten and tantalum, and have turned instead to gold, which is easier to smuggle across borders.Gold is very portable, you can put it in your pocket and it is easily smuggled across the border. You dont need a large quantity to make a lot of money, said an anti-fraud agent of the border custom in Goma, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.Roughly $30,000 worth of gold can fit in a pocket and around $700,000 in a briefcase, estimates The Enough Project, the rights group that specializes in conflict minerals in Congo and Sudan.While only 23 kilograms of gold were officially exported from eastern Congo in the first half of 2012, 2 tons to 4 tons of gold went out through illegal routes, according to the report.As a result, the illegal gold trade represents lost revenues of hundreds of millions of dollars for the Congolese state every year, preventing the local population from benefiting from the countrys natural resources.Instead armed groups are profiting from the illegal trade, through taxation and coercion.If you drive from Walikale (a major minerals center) to Goma, you have to pass three different checkpoints. You have to pay the (Rwandan Hutu Democratic Forces), you have to pay the (former National Congress for the Defense of the People), and you have to pay the army. You have to pay all, or they will kill you, says Willy, a minerals transporter quoted by Enough.the officers to get a cut from the trade, said a former Ugandan mining official quoted by Enough.Uganda was accused in a recent United Nations report of supporting the M23 rebellion in eastern DRC. The Ugandan government strongly denies the allegations.
