Mobile phones, colin and fighting

There is a good opportunity to be inside your mobile phone a small amount of metal that began its journey buried in the land of the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the war is currently ready.

It may be directly connected to the M23 Repel collection, which has been changing international newspapers this week.

Tantalum weighs inside your device less than half of the average peas in the garden, but it is necessary to work effectively for the smartphone, and almost all other advanced electronic devices.

The unique properties of this rare gray blue metal, including the ability to withstand a high charge compared to its size, while working in a set of temperatures – make it perfect for small capacitors that store energy temporarily.

It is also canceled in Rwanda, Brazil and Nigeria, but at least 40 % – and perhaps more – from the global offer of the element comes from Dr. Congo and some major mining areas are now under the control of the M23.

The current wave of fighting has been going on for months, but the rebels acquired on Sunday's attack on the Goma Trading and Transport Center. The city, which borders Rwanda, is a regional center for mining business

Over the past year, the M23 has made a rapid progress across the Dr Con Cono, with the areas where the Kultan-O great is extracted from Tantalum-.

Like dozens of other armed groups working in the region, the M23 has started to defend the rights of an ethnic group that is seen threatening. But as its lands expand, mining has become an important source of income, as it is pushed for fighters and weapons.

Last April, it seized a counant, the city, at the heart of the country's collection.

Mineral extraction in this region is not in the hands of multinational clusters – instead, thousands of individuals are used to open honey in the landscape, or underground, in unsafe and unhealthy conditions.

It is part of a complex network, however unofficial, you see the rocks that were removed from the ground using the outbreaks, which were brought to the surface, crushed, washing, and his tax, then exported to purify and grieve in the end.

Once M23 moved to Robia, the rebels created what a group of United Nations experts described as a “state -like administration”, as they issued permits to Diggers and merchants and demanding annual fees of $ 25 (20 pounds) and $ 250, respectively. M23 doubles Diggers to ensure that they will continue to work.

It runs the region as a monopoly that is confirmed – by threatening arrest and detention – that only accredited merchants are able to do commercial business.

The M23 also receives a $ 7 tax per kilogram of two koch. The United Nations Group of Experts estimated that as a result, M23 earns about $ 800,000 per month of colin taxes in Robia. Certainly, these funds are used to finance the rebellion.

There is a hanging question mark on how to enter the M23 areas of the M23 to the global supply chain.

United Nations experts say that the neighboring Rwanda, which is seen as supporting the M23, is located in the center of the answer.

In theory, the ratification scheme – known as the ITSCI supply chain initiative (ITSCI) – should mean that what enters the phone and the phone does not come from the areas of conflict as it can be used to fund the armed groups responsible for conducting atrocities.

The Dod-Frank Law in the United States in 2010, and a similar part of the European Union's legislation aims to ensure that companies that buy tin, tantalum, tingstin and gold-the so-called “conflict minerals”-are not funded violence.

But Itsci has been criticized.

Ken Matisin, an expert on security and resource management in the Independent Research Group, highlights that the dispersed nature of many small mines makes it difficult for local authorities to monitor exactly what is happening everywhere.

Mr. Mattisen said that ITSCI signs should be placed on bags in the same mine, to prove the origin of the minerals inside, but it is often transferred to a grouping point where it is difficult to follow where the crude has already came.

He added that there is also a possible problem with corruption.

“There is even accusing state agents who sell signs to merchants, because they do not gain a good life. Then traders wander around the east of the Congo and put the bags themselves.”

Itsci did not respond to the BBC request to comment, but in the past he defended his record, saying that this plan had been subjected to a strict independent review. It was also praised by bringing “prosperity to hundreds of thousands of miners on a small scale.”

In the case of a countess, ITSCI suspended its operations there shortly after the M23 entered the city.

However, the group was able to continue exporting Colatan.

United Nations experts plan a circular path that explains how it is transferred to approaching the Rwandan border. Then it is transferred to “very service trucks” that you need to expand the way to absorb it.

Rwanda has its own coluine mines, but experts say that the unaccompanied cholester is mixed with Rwandi's production that leads to “great pollution of supply chains”.

The M23 has already participated in the Carlitan company before seizing a countess – creating road barriers and charging fees to cross it, according to Mr. Matisin.

“Many of these minerals have passed through the M23 area towards Rwanda. Until then, Rwanda was taking advantage of instability in the eastern Congo and we saw that export volumes to Rwanda are already increasing,” he said to the BBC.

The numbers received from the American Geological Survey indicate that the Countain exports in Rwanda increased by 50 % between 2022 and 2023. Mr. Matisin said this could not come from Rwanda.

In a strong defense of the position of Rwanda, government spokeswoman Yulandi McCulo has reiterated the BBC that there are minerals and the ability to devote in her country.

She added: “It is extremely indignant to take a problem like what is happening in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the oppressed society fights for its rights … and turns (IT) into a matter of material benefit.”

Rwandan President Paul Kajami also rejected the reports of United Nations experts, and poured out their “experience.”

Many east of Dr. Congo were exposed to the conflict for many years, which raised questions about who benefited and whether armed groups benefit from what is dug from the land there.

In order to shed light on the case and its relationship to the smartphone industry, the Congolese government submitted criminal complaints in France and Belgium at the end of last year against the Apple technology giant companies, accusing the use of “conflict minerals”.

Apple has opposed the prosecution and indicated that since early 2024, due to the escalating conflict and the difficulties of certificates, it stopped from Tantalum sources, among other minerals, from Dr. Congo and Rwanda.

Other companies were not very clear, which means that with M23 seized more lands of these small pieces of Tantalum of mines that control their way to the devices we have reached.