Mobile phones and war in the Congo

(by Alessandro Rugolo) The title of the article could leave you dumbfounded: what do cell phones have to do with the war in Congo and with Coltan?
It all started with the reading of the book by Noam Chomsky and Andre Vltchek entitled "Western Terrorism". The book is a journey through the world seen through the eyes of Chomsky and Vltchek.

The term "Coltan" appears on the first pages. I underline it and I intend to go to deepen at the end of the chapter, but then I stop, go back, reread ... and I do it immediately.
I enter some keywords on my browser: coltan, war, congo.
The first thing I find is an article in "The Guardian" which says that President Trump wants to temporarily suspend a law (Dodd-Frank financial reform) that basically prevents US multinationals from trading in minerals from Congo and using them. for the production of consumer goods. The article is from February 2017.
I continue my research and I come across another article from the 2017 that appeared in Newsweek. This discusses the possible consequences of the suspension of the Dodd-Frank reform, which came into force during the Obama presidency.

I continue the research. In an article of 15 April 2017 that appeared in Corriere della Sera entitled: "Congo, the hell of Coltan and the labor of despair" the author Andrea Nicastro begins with some news on Coltan and I also think the time has come for learn more.

What, then, is Coltan? It is the abbreviation for Columbite-Tantalite which refers to a rock composed mainly of two minerals, Columbite - (Fe, Mn) Nb2O6 - and Tantalite - (Fe, Mn) Ta2O6. Columbite-Tantalite with a high Tantalum content is highly sought after in the electronics industry as it is used for the production of electronic components.
But where is the Columbite-Tantalite?
To understand more, let's take a look at the US Geological Survey's data:

As can be seen the major producers are Congo and Rwanda, it will be a coincidence that these two states can not find peace?

Let's go on with the research trying to find answers to some other questions:

What are the countries that import Coltan?
What are the companies that use it?
what is the “world policeman” doing to end the smartphone war?
In 2011 an MIT researcher published a study entitled: “Coltan, the Congo and your phone. The connection between your mobile phone and human right abuses in Africa ", a representative title of the situation.
According to the study, the main world groups that operated the foundries for the extraction of Tantalum were three:
- Cabot Corporation (USA);
- HC Starck (Germany);
- Ningxia Corporation (China).

From the same paper we learn that the main producers of capacitors that are then used in electronic devices were:
- AVX Corporation (Kyocera Group, Japan);
- Kemet “the capacitance company” (USA);
- NEC (Japan);
- Samsung (South Korea);
- Vishay (USA).

From the 2011 the situation may have changed slightly but the substance remains.
Armed groups of different origins control the proceeds of (illegal) raw material traffic.
Among the armed groups indicated in the study were elements of:
- Lord's Resistance Army (LRA);
- Uganda People's Defense Forces (UPDF);
- Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA);
- Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR);
- Armée Patriotique Rwandaise (APR);
- Armée Nationale Congolaise (ANC);
- Forces armées de la République démocratique du Congo (FARDC).

If on the one hand there are regulations that require companies to verify the origin of raw materials (prohibiting the use of materials from warring territories), on the other side of the fence there are billions of technology consumers who cannot do without of the latest smartphone model.
In the middle, producers make their interests.

The losers are the "non-people" that are spoken of so often in the book by Noam Chomsky and Andre Vltchek that I mentioned at the beginning of the article.
More than 5 million victims caused by the violence of war between armed groups that control the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the borders.

Recently the Venezuelan government has begun to consider the possibility of extracting Coltan from its Amazonian deposits, promising respect for the indigenous peoples. Will it be a new Congo? We will see it in the next few years ...

Meanwhile, in our little one can we do something?
Yes. When we decide to change the smartphone, let's do it because we really need it and not to chase a fashion or to satisfy the whim of our son.

Mobile phones and war in the Congo