DR Congo rebel group M23 seizes mining town crucial for supply of smartphone minerals

M23 rebels have seized an African town crucial to the supply of minerals for smartphones.

Rubaya, a key mining town for coltan in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. has been taken over following days of intense fighting, a rebel spokesman said.

DR Congo’s east has been plagued by violence since the 1990s, with millions killed as struggles over national identity, ethnicity and resources led to invasions by neighbouring countries and a myriad of armed groups springing up.

Willy Ngoma, the Tutsi-led M23 military spokesman, told Reuters the town in north Kivu was under the group’s control after it went after other armed factions in the region including the Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, which is composed of ethnic Hutus.

DR Congo army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Guillaume Njike said: “We are in the process of cross-checking since yesterday whether or not it has fallen to the hands of the M23 rebels.”

The government has not commented.

Most of the country’s mineral resources are concentrated in the east where insecurity has worsened since the M23 made a major comeback in March 2022.

Rubaya holds rich deposits of tantalum, extracted from coltan, which is a critical energy transition mineral used in the manufacture of smartphones, laptops and game consoles.

The group has twice taken control of Rubaya previously for a few days.

The Congolese government, UN officials and Western powers have accused Rwanda of providing support for M23, something it has repeatedly denied.

Youth leader Clovis Mafare said Rubaya was encircled by the rebels.

“There is a large displacement of the population because the clashes are intense,” he said, adding that the town’s mining quarries were not occupied.

Rubaya was previously under the control of pro-government militia group the Wazalendo.

The United Nations said in December 2023 that Wazalendo armed groups controlled sites within main exploitation perimeters compromising the tin, tantalum and tungsten supply chains.

Conflicts have also arisen over the illicit trade in tin and gold mined in DR Congo which is then smuggled out through Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.

The country’s government is pushing Apple for more information about its supply chain over concerns it may be tainted with conflict minerals. Apple said it had not found any smelters or refiners in its remit that financed or benefited armed groups in DR Congo or an adjoining country.