Division and suspicion have gripped five villages near Kenya's coast as global powers from the United States to China eye a forest that is rich in rare earths -- minerals vital to high-tech and low-carbon industries.

The US government under President Donald Trump has made securing critical minerals central to its diplomacy in Africa, including through a peace deal in the resource-rich Democratic Republic of Congo this year.

Mrima Hill -- a forest of around 390 acres near Kenya's Indian Ocean coastline -- could be another target.

It sits quietly on huge rare-earth deposits that Cortec Mining Kenya, a subsidiary of UK and Canada-based Pacific Wildcat Resources, estimated in 2013 were worth $62.4 billion, including large stores of niobium, used to strengthen steel.

US official Marc Dillar

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