On 16 February 2025, the Rwanda-backed rebel group M23 captured Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu, less than a month after seizing North Kivu’s capital, Goma. The M23 thus controls the two main mining and commercial hubs located north and south of the Lake Kivu along the border with Rwanda, in resource-rich eastern DR Congo.
M23’s territorial gains in eastern DR Congo, including the two strategic cities bordering Rwanda, give the group control over the production, sale and export of valuable minerals, primarily gold, tin and coltan – the source of tantalum used in mobile phones, computers and other electronics. Revenues from these minerals finance M23’s military operations, while minerals transported to Rwanda contribute to the country’s national budget, allowing President Paul Kagame’s government to sustain its support for the rebels.
Businesses sourcing minerals from Rwanda and eastern DR Congo. Producers of electronic components (used in mobile phones, computers, automotive electronics, cameras) and alloys (used in vessels, jet engines, nuclear reactors), and the jewelry sector face reputational and legal risks for being linked to ‘conflict minerals’. Since minerals from eastern DR Congo are mixed with Rwanda’s domestic output before export, it is virtually impossible to ensure that minerals sourced from Rwanda are conflict-free.
Businesses operating in the Great Lakes region. Rwanda’s backing of M23 and the presence of some 3000 Rwandan troops in eastern DR Congo – confirmed by UN expert reports, along the Congolese and US governments – risk provoking a regional war, exposing companies to a more volatile political and business environment.
Neighboring Uganda and Burundi, which have deployed troops in eastern DR Congo to support the Congolese army against rebel groups, have long-standing tensions with Rwanda, accusing it of trying to destabilize their regimes. Rwanda harbors similar grievances, particularly against DR Congo, accusing it of offering safe haven to some Hutu perpetrators of the 1994 genocide and Kagame’s opponents.
Rwanda’s growing access to Congolese minerals through M23’s territorial expansion risks incentivizing Uganda, Burundi and other countries in the region to get their share of DR Congo’s mineral wealth by interfering in the conflict. This would further destabilize the Great Lakes region, resulting in governments spending more money on fighting the war than on providing an effective and secure business environment.