Apple faces allegations of using ‘blood minerals’ from war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has warned United States tech giant Apple to desist from using what it calls “blood minerals” drawn from the impoverished Central African country or face legal action.

In an April 22 letter addressed to Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook, American and French lawyers representing the DRC accused the company of buying minerals that are illicitly transported from the DRC to Rwanda. These minerals’ origins are purportedly concealed, allowing them to infiltrate the global technology supply chain. The DRC government says it will seek legal redress if the company continues with the practice.

“Apple has affirmed that it verifies the origins of minerals it uses to manufacture its products…It says that the tin, tungsten, tantalum — the 3Ts — and gold that its suppliers purchase are conflict free and do not finance war. But those claims do not appear to be based on concrete, verifiable evidence,” the letter stated.

The claims against Apple have been documented in a 53-page report by Amsterdam & Partners, the law firm representing the DRC government.

The report is titled Blood Minerals: Everyone sees the massacres in Eastern Congo, but everyone is silent. The laundering of DRC’s 3T Minerals by Rwanda and by private entities.

The letter to Apple states that “it has become clear to us that year after year, Apple has sold technology made with minerals sourced from a region whose population is being devastated by grave violations of human rights. The iPhones, Mac computers and accessories that Apple sells to its customers around the world rely on supply chains that are too opaque, and that are tainted by the blood of the Congolese people.”

Apple has denied any wrong-doing, pointing to its 2023 annual corporate report, claiming that due diligence efforts found no evidence of direct or indirect financing of armed groups in the DRC or adjacent countries.

The DRC’s mineral-rich eastern region, home to tantalum, tin, tungsten, and gold (collectively known as 3T or 3TG), has been plagued by violence for decades.

Tensions escalated in late 2021 when rebels from the March 23 Movement (M23) began recapturing territory, exacerbating conflict over mineral resources.

Rwanda has been accused by the DRC, the United Nations, and Western countries of supporting rebel groups like M23 to gain control over the region’s vast mineral wealth.

“These minerals are known as blood minerals, because all the wars in eastern DRC have involved access to mineral resources, in the forests and villages inhabited by indigenous and local communities, where women and children are either deprived of their villages and fields, raped, killed or mutilated, or forced to work in the mines. None of this would be possible without foreign companies like Apple taking illicit advantage of the unrest by stepping up mineral smuggling, despite the regional and international instruments in place,” said Josué Aruna, executive director of the non-profit, Congo Basin Conservation Society CBCS-Network in an interview with Down To Earth (DTE).

There are approximately 120 armed groups in the eastern DRC, according to the Kivu Security Tracker.  These armed groups benefit from the mining and trade of minerals to varying degrees. In addition, different criminal groups and elements of the Congolese security forces are also involved in the illegal minerals trade, according to the United Nations and other reporting.

Read Book Excerpt: It is the blood of the Congo that is powering our tech boom

DRC President Felix Tshisekedi came to power promising to make the country’s minerals count for the development of the people and the threats against Apple are part of the effort to fulfill that promise.

“We applauded the DRC’s approach to Apple, a firm of renown in the US,” Aruna told DTE.

He said it was highly hypocritical of the US to claim to be a protector of democracy and human rights, while “turning a blind eye when it is American companies that are involved in serious human rights violations.”

“American economic operators are responsible for the great disaster in Kivu, which has become a theatre of bloodshed because of our resources,” he told DTE.

But according to the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), even with their good intentions, some of the companies face significant challenges in determining the origins of the minerals they use.

In 2022, GAO carried out a study on conflict minerals in Eastern DRC as part of a decades-long effort to improve peace and security in the country.

“…we found that overall peace and security in the eastern part of DRC had not improved since the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s conflict minerals disclosure rule went into effect in 2014,” said Kimberly Gianopoulos ,director of  International Affairs and Trade at GAO.

“We found that this was due to a number of persistent, interdependent factors that fueled the violence, including weak governance, corruption, and natural resource exploitation, among others,” she told DTE.

“As part of our work, we also noted continuing challenges that companies face in determining the origins of the minerals used in their products, even after conducting due diligence efforts,” she said.

Aruna expressed skepticism that the case (against Apple) would head anywhere, given that Apple “is an economically strong giant and is capable of corrupting at any level, even to bribe its way out of this case”.

“But if the American government could put world peace above blackened economic interests that sow division among Africans, good fortune in this trial might be possible,” he added.

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