DR Congo to establish US-backed paramilitary guard for mines

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) plans to set up a paramilitary unit to secure the country’s large mining sites.

The General Inspectorate of Mines (IGM), which oversees the East African country’s abundant deposits of critical minerals, announced the creation of “the mining guard” on Monday. The unit will be backed by investments from the United States and United Arab Emirates as Washington and its ally seek to lock in access to the minerals and the DRC struggles with rebel groups for control in the country’s troubled east.

The IGM described the plan to establish a “paramilitary special unit intended to secure the entire mineral exploitation chain” in the DRC. The guard will be responsible for securing mining sites as well as minerals transport.

“By the end of 2028, a gradual deployment is planned of a workforce of more than 20,000 guards covering the 22 mining provinces under IGM supervision,” the body said in a statement.

Recruits will undergo a six-month training programme, and the first contingent is expected to be deployed in December, it added.

President Felix Tshisekedi aims to “clean up the entire mining sector, by eliminating practices that run counter to good governance, transparency and the traceability of minerals”, the inspector general of mines, Rafael Kabengele, said in the statement.

The $100m programme is being funded through partnerships with the US and UAE, the IGM said.

The Central African nation is responsible for about 70 percent of the global output of cobalt, a key mineral in the production of electric car batteries and defence technology. The country also has some of the world’s richest deposits of copper, coltan and lithium.

Chinese mining firms have a dominant position in the country. The US is pushing to reduce this dominance. The enormous wealth to be found underground is also an element driving rebel groups.

The DRC and Rwanda signed an agreement in December aimed at ending conflict in the eastern DRC. The DRC’s tiny eastern neighbour last year backed the M23 armed group as it pushed into the east, a region long mired in violence and illicit mineral trafficking.

The accord includes an economic component aimed at driving the supply of strategic minerals for US interests.

The DRC and US signed a minerals partnership last year, under which US firm Virtus Minerals has taken over copper and cobalt miner Chemaf.

Other Western companies have also expressed interest in investing, including in assets located in rebel-held territory.