FYI - More detail on what is happening in the Congo - a bloody civil war with the prize of cobalt sales to the EU and elsewhere
From here:
A meeting with Congo's rebel leader
A previous article pointed to the sectarian violence and the latest incident involving the beheading of Christians by Islamic terrorists.
Here is another perspective:
Once a trusted ally of Congo's president, Corneille Nangaa is now leading the M23 rebellion that threatens to topple the government.
Nangaa's M23 militia has captured key regions, and controls a mine that exports valuable raw materials. U.N. experts say the rebels are being supported by Rwanda.
Nangaa is currently presenting himself as a politician willing to negotiate, but says his group will use violence to overturn the government if necessary.
“In late January, M23 marched into the strategically important megacity of Goma. The fighting with Congo's army and its allied militias lasted for days, and around 2,900 people were killed. Nangaa calls the violence the «price of peace,» for which the government bears responsibility due to its arming of civilians. However, most of those killed were fighters from one or the other side, he adds.”
Since then, the rebel has gained control over the entire province of North Kivu, an area the size of Switzerland, and his troops have advanced as far as the capital of the neighboring province of South Kivu. “People are waiting for us all over the country,” he claims. “People are asking us: Why is it taking so long?”
This has the hallmarks of the rapid invasion and takeover of Syria by Hezbollah and affiliated terrorists a few months ago.
“This is a threat that echoes all the way to Europe. This huge country in the heart of Africa produces almost three-quarters of the world's cobalt. Congo is also indispensable for other building blocks of the energy transition, such as copper and coltan.”
“The European Union signed a so-called raw materials partnership with this country in early 2024. People in Congo were furious.”
“Congo's government accuses Rwanda of supporting M23, and of smuggling minerals from eastern Congo into Rwanda and then exporting them.”
“Coltan exports from Rwanda have risen massively since the ongoing M23 offensive began three years ago. Among other gains, the rebels today control the Rubaya mine, which produces an estimated 120 tons of coltan per month. The market value of this quantity of the mineral is $800,000.”
From Brave AI:
“Coltan, short for columbite-tantalite, is a dull black metallic ore from which the elements niobium and tantalum are extracted. Tantalum from coltan is used to manufacture tantalum capacitors, which are essential components in mobile phones, personal computers, and other electronic devices.”
Back to the article.
“Even a recent U.N. expert report states that Rwanda supports M23 with money, soldiers and weapons. “
“Europe has come under pressure to withdraw from its raw materials agreement with Rwanda. It has been accused of financing the war in Congo through its purchase of these goods.”
“If Europe doesn't have access there, then the industry is facing a major price shock,” says one expert on the sector.
“In Goma, his M23 group is now portraying itself as a better government, as a corruption-free alternative to that of Tshisekedi, whose wretched army has nothing to oppose the hundred armed groups in North Kivu.”
Not so much a sectarian war as a war for control of the cobalt mines and the ability to sell to, mostly, the EU.
Lots mor anecdotes and images in the main article linked at the top.
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