Global Witness Warns of New War in DRC Over Resources

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) increasingly faces the risk of sliding back into war due to the international community's failure to reform the management of the country’s natural resources, according to a new study from Global Witness.

The report, Same Old Story: a background study on natural resources in the DRC, examines the nature and history of resource exploitation in the DRC and links weak regulation of natural resources to the funding of conflict.

Rebels, government troops and their foreign allies have exploited the DRC’s rich reserves of diamonds, gold, timber, ivory, coltan and cobalt to finance their participation in a war which has led to the deaths of more than three million people since 1998.

Much recent fighting has been motivated by struggles to control areas rich in natural resources and there are widespread fears that war could break out again after the DRC moved thousands of troops to its border with Rwanda.

"If another war is to be avoided and peace is to return to the DRC, the issue of natural resources must be properly addressed as a matter of urgency," said Simon Taylor, a founding Director of Global Witness. "Bad resource governance is the curse of Congo."

Global Witness said links between natural resources, troop movements, arms flows, smuggling and corruption have been documented in numerous reports by U.N. Expert Panels and non-governmental organizations.

Although the international community fears a return to full-scale war, made possible in part by the country’s vast natural resources, there has been no action to cut these links. "There is a complete lack of political will, and this has to change," said Taylor.

"Same Old Story" calls on the international community to create forceful cross-border solutions to stop the ransacking of natural resources and deal with the regulatory weaknesses that make it possible. "If immediate action is not taken, then historic patterns of misuse will just repeat themselves."

The study calls on the UN Security Council to amend the mandate of the UN Mission in the DRC to include investigations of ongoing links between illicit trade in natural resources and arms trafficking.

They also urge governments to match huge pledges of donor aid to DRC with stringent enforcement of laws and guidelines governing activities of companies operating in the trade of resources, along with laws against money laundering, bribery, arms trafficking and other international crimes.