Fraudulent Mineral Trafficking Thrives in Eastern DRC: Civil Society

In a press release received this Friday, March 8, 2024 at DESKECO.COM, the territorial coordination of the Civil Society Forces Fives of Masisi alerts both national and international opinion on the fraudulent trafficking of minerals from the exploitation perimeter (PE) 4731 in the RUBAYA region by RWANDA and company via the M23 label in complicity with certain black sheep (traitors) at the local level. 

The press release warns that several tons of strategic minerals, notably coltan… are being evacuated at night from the RUBAYA region to the city of MUSHAKI by motorbikes which play the role of transport. 

After receiving the ores at MUSHAKI, the M23 uses its reinforcement vehicles on the return as a means of transporting these ores via KAUSA, KILOLIRWE, KITSHANGA to drop off in several destinations in RUTSHURU territory including mainly the city of BUNAGANA where counters illegal immigrants would be installed before transit to RWANDA etc.

This mafia network which operates in violation of the DR Congo mining code and other international legal instruments in this area constitutes a real danger, requiring restrictive or rigid decisions in order to stop the bleeding.

Given the degree of the calamity, the Masisi Civil Society recommends the following:

❖ To the Congolese government and other institutions of the Republic:

1. To take, as urgently as possible, a decision in the direction of surveillance and protection of PE4731 against the illegal exploitation and trafficking of minerals in the RUBAYA region and to deploy a special army unit there national for this purpose;

2. To specially identify all local accomplices and punish them as traitors (high treason)

❖ To the local population: to report any suspicious cases and not to give in to any manipulation;

❖ To the international community: to take restrictive measures against the minerals currently presented on the world market by RWANDA.