Peace for minerals: Negotiations between the US and Democratic Republic of the Congo raise alarm bells

Civil society and experts call for an end to the enrichment of foreign countries and the Congolese elite at the expense of the population

The world’s largest exporters of coltan — essential for digitalization, the energy transition, and weapons production — have become the latest example of the U.S. government’s transactional policies. At a time when world powers are seeking to secure supplies of critical minerals for the economy, dominated by China , the Donald Trump administration has sat down with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and neighboring Rwanda, with whom it hopes to close economic agreements within a couple of months.

The U.S. plan is to pacify eastern DRC, a mineral-rich region where conflict has claimed some six million lives over the past 30 years, and pave t