Illicit exploitation of coltan, more than 4 billion USD escape the control of the Public Treasury per year (ENACT Africa)

The activity of armed groups in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) causes the public treasury to lose more than four (4) billion US dollars per year due to the illicit exploitation of coltan.

This figure emerges from the latest report published by ENACT Africa, a European Union project aimed at strengthening the fight against transnational organized crime in Africa,

In this report, the organization has highlighted some of the evils that hinder the responsible exploitation of Congolese coltan.

Among the evils raised by ENACT Africa, there is in particular the collusion of the State with criminal networks, the destruction of the historical heritage of local communities, the exploitation of minors, rape and gender-based violence.

According to ENACT Africa, this report is the result of discussions in the field with members of the Congolese Ministry of Mines, officials of the Center for Certification, Expertise and Evaluation (CEEC), the Congolese Agency for environment and non-governmental organizations in North and South Kivu, among others.

According to the findings reported, much of Congolese artisanal coltan production still escapes state control.

The presence of armed groups in several mining areas located in the provinces of North and South Kivu prevents the control authorities from accessing them to implement the regulations in force.

This area of ​​lawlessness would encourage child labor, insecurity of workers with sometimes sexual violence against women working on extraction sites.

In areas where the government presence is clearly demonstrated, the ENACT Africa report also denounces collaboration between the authorities responsible for regulating the activity and the criminal groups operating on the ground, through corruption.

The case that best illustrates this situation remains that of the Assistance and Supervision Service for Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (SAEMAPE) created in 2003 with the dual mission of controlling artisanal operations and developing the sector.

However, ENACT Africa says that nearly two decades later, the sector’s ills have worsened, as the state body is said to be more concerned with paying taxes owed by miners than anything else.

Its civil servants, who often accumulate several months of unpaid wages, find themselves “continually harassing the miners to get them to pay” or else they visit the mining sites too irregularly for their control missions to have a real impact.