{"id":24117,"date":"2026-02-05T01:08:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T01:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/?p=24117"},"modified":"2026-02-05T01:11:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T01:11:45","slug":"we-are-exploited-congolese-fear-losing-out-as-us-makes-minerals-deals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/we-are-exploited-congolese-fear-losing-out-as-us-makes-minerals-deals\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We are exploited\u2019: Congolese fear losing out as US makes minerals deals"},"content":{"rendered":"

As delegations meet in Washington to discuss critical minerals, many in eastern DRC fear their country will gain little in the process. <\/em>Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo<\/em> \u2013<\/em><\/strong><\/span> In cities in the mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), home to some of the world\u2019s largest cobalt and copper reserves, eyes are on the outcome of a meeting happening thousands of kilometers away<\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In Washington, DC, on Wednesday, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio will host the inaugural Critical Minerals Ministerial, where delegations from 50 countries including the DRC will discuss efforts to strengthen and diversify mineral supply chains as the US seeks to counter China\u2019s global dominance in the sector<\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n

As part of a \u201cresources-for-security\u201d type\u00a0deal<\/a>\u00a0agreed last year, the US signed a mining agreement with Kinshasa\u2019s government to secure supplies of components essential to its technological innovation, economic power, and national security.<\/em><\/p>\n

While Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi has touted the economic benefits of the endeavor, many in the country\u2019s mining epicenter \u2013 trapped between poverty and armed violence \u2013 see only further oppression on the horizon.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are exploited in mineral extraction,\u201d said Gerard Buunda, an economics student in Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, which is a significant source of the world\u2019s coltan, tin and gold resouces. \u201cThere are investors who make us work; sometimes they chase us off our land and force us to work for them in their mines for their own selfish interests.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to be exploited any more.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Buunda, 28, who was born not far from the mineral-rich city of\u00a0Rubaya<\/a>, condemns what he says are foreign multinationals exposing people to poverty and low wages, child exploitation, and environmental degradation \u2013 putting Congolese lives at risk.<\/em><\/p>\n

He fears that the Donald Trump administration\u2019s voracity for critical minerals could heighten socio-political instability in many parts of the world.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHere in eastern DRC, the people who finance mineral exploitation, when they find new mines, buy land from local communities in collusion with our leaders and displace them, and this is the root cause of insecurity,\u201d said Buunda.<\/em><\/p>\n

He called on African leaders, especially those in the DRC, to avoid being \u201cthe fall guys\u201d and instead keep an eye on the future of their own rare earths.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A miner holds newly extracted coltan ore in Rubaya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018They said: please come and take our minerals\u2019<\/em><\/h2>\n

With large deposits of cobalt and lithium \u2013 which are essential for electric vehicle batteries and renewable technologies \u2013 the Congolese authorities are promoting the DRC as a solution for the energy transition.<\/em><\/p>\n

The US has shown interest, including directly linking security guarantees to resource extraction when it mediated the signing of a\u00a0peace deal<\/a>\u00a0between conflict-prone neighbours DRC and Rwanda last year.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI actually stopped the war with Congo and Rwanda,\u201d Trump claimed in December. \u201cAnd they said to me, \u2018Please, please, we would love you to come and take our minerals.\u2019 Which we\u2019ll do.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Koko Buroko Gloire, a Congolese international affairs commentator based in Kenya, doubts the DRC will gain anything solid from the deal with the US. The market for critical minerals, he believes, is attracting the \u201ccovetousness\u201d of major world powers who are lining up for an \u201cincreasingly geopolitical\u201d battle.<\/em><\/p>\n

But at the end of the day, for the DRC, Koko says the benefits \u2013 or lack of them \u2013 will depend on the will of the Congolese leadership.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIf this deal will allow us, the Congolese people, to have roads from point A to point B, to have clean water, to have hospitals, to have water, I think it\u2019s a good deal,\u201d he told Al Jazeera, urging Congolese leaders to make sure the DRC does not come out empty-handed.<\/em><\/p>\n

Before Trump came to office, former US President Joe Biden visited the region, in part to discuss the\u00a0Lobito Corridor<\/a>\u00a0railway infrastructure project, which is currently in disrepair in DRC but will connect the country\u2019s mining provinces to Angola, along the Atlantic Coast \u2013 a key port for the export of minerals from Africa to the US.<\/em><\/p>\n

According to satellite image analysis carried out by\u00a0Global Witness<\/a>, up to 6,500 people could be affected by displacement linked to the development of the Lobito corridor in the DRC.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0egretnewseditor@gmail.com<\/span>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As delegations meet in Washington to discuss critical minerals, many in eastern DRC fear their country will gain little in the process. Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo \u2013 In cities in the mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), home to some of the world\u2019s largest cobalt and copper reserves, eyes are on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47471,"featured_media":24118,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[198,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-slider","category-top-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47471"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24117"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24122,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24117\/revisions\/24122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}