Illicit mineral trade in eastern DR Congo

The United Nations has warned that illicit mineral trafficking in the Great Lakes region provides ongoing funding for armed groups, linking competition over natural resources to insecurity and regional tensions in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In response, regional ministers from the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) have endorsed recommendations to improve transparency and traceability in mineral value chains through regional certification mechanisms.

Subsequent investigations by The Sentry have identified the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an ISIL-linked militia, as increasingly self-funding its operations through illicit gold smuggling, cocoa production, extortion, and kidnappings. The report, ‘Gold-Backed Brutality: The ADF’s Conflict Gold Trade’, indicates that gold extracted from mines under ADF control serves as a primary revenue source, with much of it allegedly smuggled into Uganda before reaching international markets such as the United Arab Emirates.

While joint military operations between Uganda and the DRC have been conducted, researchers suggest these efforts have merely displaced the militia into other gold-rich zones. The Sentry has called for investigations by the United Nations, United States, United Kingdom, and European Union into these gold-trading networks.