Cardinal says warlords and multinationals are fueling African wars to exploit mineral resources

YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon – Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, who also chairs the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), has issued a scathing indictment of the exploitation of Africa’s mineral resources.

Speaking at a webinar organized on the 60th anniversary of the canonization of the Ugandan martyrs, Ambongo said it is paradoxical that a mineral-rich country like the DRC should also be home to some of the poorest people in the world.

The country is rich in cobalt, lithium and coltan, minerals needed to advance what analysts are calling the “Fourth Industrial Revolution,” powered in part by artificial intelligence and advanced robotics. The DRC accounts for about 71 percent of the world’s total cobalt production, and 35 percent of its coltan.

The UN Environment Program (UNEP) estimates that the DRC has untapped mineral reserves worth $24 trillion. The country also has half of Africa’s water resources and forest cover, along with 80 million hectares of arable land that could feed the entire continent.

In 2022, copper and cobalt exports generated US$25 billion, representing over a third of the DRC’s GDP for that year. The same year, the World Bank found that about 74.6 percent of the DRC’s population lives on less than $2.15 a day, and about one in six Congolese lives in extreme poverty.

The exploitation of mineral resources in Congo and across Africa has led to war, death and destruction, according to Ambongo, calling those who suffer and die in the conflicts “modern martyrs.”

“The Church cannot remain silent in the face of this illegal exploitation of mineral resources, which is causing war and violence, tearing the social fabric of our countries and endangering their future,” the Congolese cardinal said during the conference titled : “Modern Martyrs, Victims of Mineral Resource Exploitation in Africa: Realities and Perspectives of the Outgoing Church.”

“For more than a decade, our countries have become the theater of conflicts and wars, sowing destruction, disorder, tears, suffering and death,” Ambongo said. “How can we, in the face of this devastating and murderous violence, celebrate with joy and gladness such a great anniversary of 60 years of Uganda’s martyrs, without reflecting together on this tragedy?”

“How can we think about the future of our churches without looking into the faces of these many people who have prematurely aged as a result of inhumane living conditions, without seeing these faces of displaced people disfigured by hunger, without listening to the shrill cries of these raped people? women, without hearing the noise of these children working in the mines and these young people being needlessly slaughtered by warlords supported by international lobbies in search of wealth? he asked.

He said the exploitation of crucial minerals such as tin, tantalum, gold and tungsten, as well as energy transition minerals such as lithium, nickel and cobalt, is fueling armed conflict in several African regions.

“These minerals are present in batteries of electric vehicles, smartphones, laptops, etc. Under the instigation of multinationals, armed groups locked in a vicious circle of financial logic are fighting in various African regions. War allows control over the various mines, while at the same time the sale of minerals is used to finance war,” he said.

Father Stan Chu Ilo, research professor at DePaul University and coordinating officer at the Pan African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network, said Crux that in addition to the exploitation of Africa’s minerals by foreign conglomerates and industries – a reality that began with the slave trade – there is also “the rape of African resources by African office holders through the extractive leadership found in resource-rich African countries such as Nigeria , DRC, Sudan, South Sudan, CAR, Cameroon, Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa and many others.”

He said it may be convenient to blame foreign companies “for the extraction and extraversion of Africa’s resources,” but he emphasized that Africans must also take the blame for these problems.

“There is so much greed on our continent, and it runs deep and across the board, from top to bottom. However, the people who govern the African states, and their religious minions and cheerleaders, must take the brunt of the blame for this client-patron relationship that has caused so much poverty, suffering and pain for God’s people in Africa,” Chu Ilo shared. Crux.

He noted that the situation will not be changed by those who profit from the wanton exploitation of Africa’s minerals. On the contrary, it could be changed if the church stands up against the “scandal of poverty in Africa amid so much wealth.”

Cho said African youth must heed Pope Francis’ call to “mobilize themselves against social evil in their countries,” and that African theologians must make the issue a central concern in their writings, teaching and advocacy.

“Faced with the structural violence that is destroying the lives of our people, especially the poor and vulnerable, and struggling as we all do with the increasing violence and unrest among our people, it is no longer possible to continue with ‘desktop theology’ ,” he says. said.

“I believe that the time is ripe for the emergence of a new historical consciousness in Africa that will initiate an evangelically driven theology and pastoral life that can bring about social transformation in Africa and give hope to our people who have enough ago,” Cho said.

Ambogo said the church must denounce injustice, support the weak and propose true reconciliation.

“It is up to us as an outgoing church, despite all these tragedies, to continually share the message of hope in the risen Jesus,” Ambongo said.

“Christian hope is inhabited by the simple conviction that the future has a face and a desirable face, even if we are not aware of its features. It therefore also implies that the form in which the present is given is not unique or closed in itself,” he said.

“Something else is possible, which should mobilize us to face the current times and its difficulties,” Ambongo said. “Strengthened by this Christian hope, the Church plays its role in the transformation of our societies.”