DRC Calls for Stronger Natural Resource Governance to Prevent Conflict
DRC Calls for Stronger Natural Resource Governance to End Conflict and Illegal Mining
For the DRC, the issue is particularly significant given the country’s vast natural resource endowment.
The country possesses substantial mineral deposits, major hydroelectric potential, extensive arable land and exceptional biodiversity, including the Congo Basin, one of the world’s major carbon sinks.
However, Kayikwamba Wagner said the country’s resource wealth has not always translated into broad-based benefits for its population.
“In the east of my country, lasting peace remains inseparable from the fight against the illegal exploitation of natural resources, the dismantling of armed groups, the drying up of their financing circuits and the end of the networks that allow minerals from conflict zones to enter global supply chains,” she said.
The minister argued that illegal resource exploitation has contributed to instability by providing revenue to armed groups and criminal networks involved in mineral smuggling.
She stressed that addressing these networks is essential to achieving lasting peace in eastern DRC, where conflict and illegal mining have remained closely interconnected.
For the DRC, the challenge is therefore not simply to protect its natural resources but to ensure that they become a foundation for economic development, peace and improved livelihoods.
Kayikwamba Wagner’s intervention comes as demand for critical minerals continues to grow globally, increasing the strategic importance of countries such as the DRC, which holds some of the world’s most significant deposits of minerals essential to the energy transition and technology industries.
The minister’s message to the Security Council was clear: stronger governance, transparent supply chains and action against illicit resource networks are essential if natural wealth is to support peace rather than perpetuate conflict.
