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China-Africa relations
ChinaDiplomacy

Truce in DR Congo offers US mining foothold while Chinese firms dominate output

Washington could secure access to crucial eastern coltan deposits, though analysts say Beijing’s entrenched infrastructure leaves American investors trailing

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Miners work a coltan mining site in Rubaya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. According to UN estimates, Rubaya alone accounts for more than 15 per cent of the world’s tantalum supply. Photo: Xinhua
Jevans Nyabiage
A peace plan agreed between the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Rwanda-backed M23 movement last weekend could open the rebel-held Rubaya coltan deposit and other parts of mineral-rich eastern Congo to US investors.
But observers say that even a lasting settlement would leave the United States far behind China, whose companies have spent decades building mining assets, relationships and supply chains across the country.

The peace road map followed five days of talks and set out steps and timelines for negotiations under a US-brokered framework reached last year. The two sides also agreed to establish a mechanism for investigating ceasefire violations, although parties remain divided over sanctions on M23, the release of detainees and the timing of political reforms.

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The Expanded Joint Verification Mechanism Plus, or EJVM+, carried out its first ceasefire-monitoring mission in eastern Congo this week with support from the UN mission MONUSCO.

Massad Boulos, the US senior adviser on Arab and African affairs, called it “an important step from commitments on paper to pursuing peace on the ground”, saying effective monitoring could “build confidence, protect civilians” and help create the conditions for lasting peace.

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