To stop the violence in Congo, we need to end the black market for the minerals in our phones

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By starving the warlords of their profits, peace might have a better chance

Labourers carry sacks of ore at the SMB coltan mine near the town of Rubaya in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, in August, 2019.Robert Rotberg is the founding director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s program on intrastate conflict, a former senior fellow at CIGI and president emeritus of the World Peace Foundation.

The peoples of the three eastern Congolese provinces of South Kivu, North Kivu and Ituri are especially endangered. In North Kivu alone, the WFP says thathave lost their homes and livelihoods due to regional violence. It estimates that nearly 3 million children in the region are acutely malnourished. Cholera is rife, too, and epidemics of Ebola recur.

These all could be considered inter-ethnic conflicts, but, in reality, they are expressions of brutal competition for power, riches and authority in a part of the DRC that has been plagued by warlord-perpetrated battles for several decades. Lust for spoils drives the killings in the region and leads to hunger crises.

The Kivus and Ituri also hold deposits of cobalt – critical in making lithium batteries – as well as copper, tin, tungsten and gold. Artisanal mining unearths coltan and these other extremely valuable resources. The rebel movements would hardly survive if profits from selling such minerals were not so immensely rewarding. CODECO, the ADF and M23 effectively exist to grab those products from local miners. The endless killings are collateral damage from these many local battles.

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