coltan

The U.S. and DRC signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement in December 2025 granting preferential access to minerals like cobalt, copper, coltan, and lithium in exchange for security cooperation. A coalition of Congolese lawyers petitioned the Constitutional Court on 21 June 2025 to invalidate the agreement, claiming it was never submitted to the court.

A Global Witness investigation found over 2,000 tonnes of smuggled Congolese coltan routed through Rwanda into global tech supply chains. The probe links the conflict mineral to major technology brands.

Conflict coltan smuggled from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) through Rwanda is entering global markets and consumer electronics, despite existing due diligence systems. The article highlights the persistence of conflict coltan in global supply chains, raising concerns about its role in funding conflicts and its presence in popular products.

An investigation by Global Witness found that Amazon, Sony, and Ericsson likely sourced coltan from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) via supply chains controlled by the M23 rebels, who are accused of sexual violence, summary executions, and torture. The minerals are used in phones and were smuggled from mines occupied by the militia.

Since 2026, at least four deadly landslides at the Rubaya coltan mines in the DRC have killed hundreds of people, with the true casualty count unclear due to M23's control restricting journalist access. Bellingcat used open-source methods to verify incidents, confirming villages were engulfed and residents killed, while authorities attribute the disasters to heavy rains during peak rainy season.