After the Bell: Blood minerals - is Rwanda the rotten core in your Apple device?

9 Jan 2025

‘Blood minerals’ and Rwanda’s sinister regime have again been thrown into sharp relief by criminal complaints filed last month in France and Belgium against Apple by the DRC — which is also a gangster state.

On Tuesday, 17 December 2024, lawyers representing the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) filed criminal complaints against subsidiaries of tech giant Apple in Belgium and France claiming that its supply chains were contaminated by “blood minerals”.

The “blood minerals” in question are tungsten, tin, tantalum and gold — all found in the device you are reading this story on.

“The complaints allege that Apple uses minerals pillaged from the DRC and laundered through international supply chains. Apple is also accused of using deceptive commercial practices to assure consumers that the tech giant’s supply chains are clean,” said US-based Amsterdam & Partners LLP, one of three law firms that filed the complaint on behalf of the DRC.

The pillager-in-chief in question is Rwanda, which has long been accused of backing armed rebels in its giant neighbour, notably the shadowy group known as M23.

Apple rejected the allegations and, in a response sent on the same day, said that it had suspended sourcing tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold — or 3TG — from both DRC and Rwanda earlier in 2024.

“As conflict in the region escalated earlier this year, we notified our suppliers that their smelters and refiners must suspend sourcing tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold from the DRC and Rwanda,” Apple said in a statement.

“We took this action because we were concerned it was no longer possible for independent auditors or industry certification mechanisms to perform the due diligence required to meet our high standards.”

Criminal complaints

Why Apple waited until criminal complaints were filed against it to make this announcement is curious. But at least it acknowledged that sourcing commodities from the region was problematic.

And more evidence has since come to light regarding Rwanda’s rapaciousness in the region.

A UN report published on Wednesday, 8 January 2025, said that rebels last year laundered at least 150 tons of coltan through Rwanda that had been looted in DRC. M23 occupied the coltan-rich Rubaya region of eastern Congo in April of 2024 and, lo and behold, that was when the coltan began flowing.

“At least 150 tons of coltan were fraudulently exported to Rwanda and mixed with Rwandan production, leading to the largest contamination of mineral supply chains in the Great Lakes region recorded to date,” the report said.

The Tutsi-led M23 and Rwanda have long been joined at the hip. This correspondent in late 2012 covered the group’s occupation of the eastern DRC city of Goma for Reuters, and I was struck by its professionalism and how spanking new its uniforms and kit appeared to be — all hallmarks of the highly polished Rwandan military.

They were and are not your run-of-the-mill, rag-tag rebel force. Rwanda has always denied that it supports M23 and profits from minerals smuggled from DRC, but the UN, NGOs and regional experts have been connecting the dots for years and they lead directly to Kigali.

The Rwandan government headed by President Paul Kagame — which maintained its iron grip on power in last year’s elections with a questionable 99% of the vote — is quite simply diabolical and ruthless, but it has long wooed Western governments and donors with a mirage of order and good governance.

Read more: Greens shamefully praise Rwanda’s anti-plastic campaign

“The ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front continues to target those perceived as a threat to the government. Several high-profile critics have been arrested or threatened and authorities regularly fail to conduct credible investigations into cases of enforced disappearances and suspicious deaths of government opponents. Arbitrary detention, ill treatment and torture in official and unofficial detention facilities are commonplace,” is the view of the widely respected NGO Human Rights Watch.

Apple’s decision to demand that its suppliers stop buying minerals from the region is a potential blow to Rwanda’s illicit cash flows, but who knows?

Investigative NGO Global Witness issued a stinging report in 2022 which found that initiatives such as the International Tin Supply Chain Initiative — aimed at ensuring a clean stream of minerals into global supply chains — were leaking like a Johannesburg water pipe.

Aside from funding various rebel groups, it found that such supply chains also carry the stain of child and forced labour.

Rwanda may well be the rotten core in your Apple device, and the products of other tech and electronics giants.

But then, so is the DRC. Rwanda, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is looting mineral wealth from the DRC, but it’s not like its citizens would benefit if the Kinshasa government had full control of its resource wealth.

Kinshasa launching criminal complaints about the stealing and siphoning of its resources is akin to Tony Soprano suing another mob boss. This is ultimately a battle between two gangster states.

Corruption

Riven with corruption, there were credible allegations that Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi rigged the 2018 election and his 2023 election was marred by irregularities which even the country’s election chief acknowledged.

The United Nations Human Rights Council late last year found that human rights abuses had persisted under Tshisekedi.

The people of the DRC have long been deprived of any gain from their rich natural endowment. Brutally colonised by Belgium under King Leopold in the 19th century, the country’s ivory, timber, rubber, and minerals and metals have enriched predatory elites while leaving the population exploited and impoverished.

There may be a high price paid by others for the device you are holding in your hands and the one I am typing on. We seldom give this a second thought, and not all of the minerals that go into our gadgets are stained with blood and sweat.

But among other things, it is something to perhaps bear in mind when making investment decisions. DM

Categories:

Tags:

DM is much better if you are signed in...

Business Maverick

Criminal complaints

Corruption