EU Dishonesty Toward the DRC

EU Dishonesty Toward the DRC: How Europe's Minerals Agreement With Rwanda Rewards Theft, Fuels Conflict and Undermines African Sovereignty

Introduction: A Continent's Wealth, A Continent's Betrayal

For more than three decades, the Democratic Republic of Congo has been the epicentre of one of the world's most violent, deadly and underreported crises. Despite holding some of the planet's most valuable mineral resources—minerals essential to modern technology and the global green transition—Congo remains a country ravaged by conflict, foreign interference, mass displacement, economic plunder and a humanitarian emergency. The tragedy is not rooted in scarcity, but in abundance. Congo's wealth has consistently attracted predatory interests, both neighbouring and international, and has generated a shadow economy in which the suffering of millions is quietly converted into profit for governments, corporations and armed groups.

It is within this context that the European Union's decision to sign an agreement with the Rwandan government intended to secure the supply of critical materials used in smartphones and electric cars must be understood. The agreement, promoted as part of the EU's strategic plan to diversify supply chains and reduce reliance on China, was announced as a partnership for development, transparency and sustainability. Yet the evidence available to the EU before the agreement was signed painted a very different picture. Rwanda is not a major producer of these minerals. It is, and has been for decades, a central redistribution hub for minerals smuggled from the Democratic Republic of Congo. These minerals are extracted under conditions of extreme violence, often by militias or rebel groups, transported illegally across the border, laundered through Rwanda's certification system and exported to international markets as supposedly clean, conflict-free products.

Europe's choice to legitimise Rwanda as a supplier therefore represents a profound dishonesty. It ignores documented realities from the United Nations, international NGOs, academic researchers and African civil society. It rewards a system of exploitation that has fed conflict in eastern Congo for more than twenty-five years. And it undermines the sovereignty of the Congolese state by treating Rwandan exports of stolen Congolese minerals as legitimate commodities.

The EU's decision is not simply a diplomatic miscalculation. It reflects a deeper pattern in international politics where African suffering is treated as an acceptable cost for global economic convenience. This article examines in detail the political, economic and moral implications of this agreement, provides an analysis of Rwanda's role as a reseller of stolen Congolese minerals, and explains why the EU now faces mounting internal and external pressure to review, suspend or entirely cancel the deal.

A Mineral Export Miracle Built on Congolese Soil

Rwanda's mineral sector is a textbook case of geological impossibility. The country possesses a small number of artisanal mines and limited reserves of tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold. Its landmass is tiny and densely populated. Its natural deposits cannot support the massive export volumes it reports year after year. Yet Rwanda has, for more than two decades, ranked among Africa's top exporters of minerals crucial to high-tech industries such as coltan, gold, tin and tungsten. The only logical explanation is that Rwanda exports minerals that do not come from Rwanda. They come from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The United Nations Group of Experts has documented this pattern since the early 2000s. Every major report, regardless of the composition of the expert panel, has arrived at the same conclusion: Rwanda acts as a laundering and redistribution hub for minerals extracted in the conflict zones of eastern Congo. Armed groups operating in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri control many of the mining sites. They impose taxes on miners, operate illicit pits, enforce systems of forced labour, and use the proceeds to finance military expansion. The ore is then transported through an elaborate network of smugglers, traders, corrupt officials and cross-border intermediaries. Once it crosses into Rwanda, it enters an entirely different legal reality. Rwanda employs a sophisticated tagging system that is highly praised in public relations by Western partners, but criticised by independent experts for its susceptibility to manipulation. Minerals labelled as Rwandan origin can then be exported without triggering alarm bells in international markets.

This transformation—from conflict ore to certified product—is the backbone of Rwanda's mineral-export economy. It is a profitable model, but only because eastern Congo is unstable. Rwanda's mineral-export sector depends on Congolese suffering. The disorder and violence in eastern DRC are not inconvenient by-products of the trade; they are essential to its continuation. Rwanda effectively purchases minerals stolen from the Congo at very low prices and resells them on the global market at high value, reaping enormous profits at the expense of the Congolese people.

The Global Witness Investigation: Europe's Role Exposed

In 2025, Global Witness released a detailed investigation that shook Brussels to its core. The report focused on Traxys, a Luxembourg-based commodities trader with deep ties to European supply chains. Global Witness revealed that Traxys purchased at least 280 tonnes of coltan from Rwanda in 2024. This quantity could not have originated from Rwandan mines. It was, almost certainly, Congolese.

The Global Witness investigation was damning not merely because it exposed Rwanda's role but because it implicated the EU directly. Here was a European-based company, importing minerals from a country widely accused of laundering conflict ore, after the EU had already signed a strategic minerals agreement with that same government. Traxys' purchases entered the EU market under the assumption of legitimacy, even though multiple reports had warned of the exact opposite.

This revelation created a political storm. It demonstrated that the EU's mineral agreement with Rwanda was not simply at risk of indirectly supporting conflict minerals; it was already enabling their entry into the European supply chain. It proved that the EU had failed to enforce its own Conflict Minerals Regulation and had chosen a supplier whose business model depended on the destabilisation of the DRC.

Euronews, EUobserver and The Guardian: Pressure on the EU Intensifies

Following the Global Witness revelations, several major European media outlets began to investigate the political implications of the EU–Rwanda agreement. Euronews published an extensive report showing that Belgium, a country with historical ties to Congo and significant knowledge of the Great Lakes region, formally requested the suspension of the agreement. Belgian officials argued publicly that Rwanda could not be considered a credible supplier of conflict-free minerals. Members of the European Parliament also criticised the Commission for its refusal to acknowledge well-documented evidence about Rwanda's role in eastern Congo. Euronews concluded that the EU was under serious institutional pressure to reconsider the agreement.

EUobserver uncovered internal EU documents showing that Commission officials had been warned before the deal was signed that Rwanda's mineral exports far exceeded its domestic production capacity. Despite this, the Commission proceeded, prioritising geopolitical considerations over human-rights concerns. EUobserver also reported that several member states questioned the Commission's credibility and accused it of ignoring the evidence for the sake of political expediency.

The Guardian published one of the most politically explosive analyses when it quoted senior Congolese officials who described the EU's behaviour as "an obvious double standard." These officials pointed out that the EU imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia for its invasion and territorial aggression in Ukraine, while simultaneously rewarding Rwanda, a country accused of backing the M23 rebellion and occupying Congolese soil. They questioned why the EU defended sovereignty in Europe but undermined it in Africa, and they argued that the minerals agreement amounted to a direct betrayal of Congo by one of the world's most influential political unions.

Why the EU Chose Rwanda Instead of Congo

The EU's choice of Rwanda over the Democratic Republic of Congo reveals a complex mixture of political convenience, geopolitical ambition and institutional hypocrisy. Rwanda presents itself internationally as a model of efficiency, cleanliness, stability and corruption control. Western governments, donors and businesses often praise Rwanda as a "success story" in Africa. Its capital city, Kigali, is marketed as safe, modern and investor-friendly. This curated image has created a loyalty effect among Western partners who see Rwanda as a dependable interlocutor.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, by contrast, is often portrayed—sometimes unfairly—as unstable, corrupt and unpredictable. Its sheer size, the complexity of its institutions, and its long history of conflict make many Western policymakers hesitant to engage directly with its government. Instead of confronting these challenges, the EU chose a shortcut. Rwanda offered simplicity, speed and cosmetic guarantees of compliance. The result was an agreement built on convenience rather than integrity.

There is also a geopolitical dimension. Europe is deeply concerned about China's dominance over global mineral supply chains. The DRC has extensive partnerships with China, especially in cobalt and copper. Rwanda, however, is aligned with Western military, economic and geopolitical interests. By working with Rwanda, the EU believed it had found a dependable gateway to African minerals that sidestepped China's influence. The irony is that the minerals still come from Congo, but the EU prefers not to work with Congo directly.

The agreement therefore serves a symbolic purpose for the EU: it appears to be diversifying away from China while avoiding the political difficulties of dealing with Congo. In reality, it deepens Europe's complicity in the destabilisation of the Great Lakes region.

The Human Cost: How the Agreement Fuels Conflict in Eastern Congo

The EU–Rwanda minerals agreement is not an abstract diplomatic issue. It has direct and devastating consequences for millions of Congolese people. Minerals from rebel-controlled zones in Congo become more profitable when they can be laundered through Rwanda. Armed groups expand their territorial control, displacing civilians, committing systematic sexual violence, recruiting child soldiers and destroying livelihoods. Families flee village after village as frontlines shift and militias seize mining zones. Women and girls are subjected to horrific abuses in areas where armed groups use rape as a weapon of war. Children are forced into labour in artisanal mines where collapses, injuries and deaths are common.

The mineral trade perpetuates a war economy. As long as rebel groups can profit from smuggling ore to Rwanda, they have no incentive to disarm. As long as Rwanda continues to profit from re-exporting Congolese minerals, it has an incentive to maintain influence over eastern Congo through proxies such as M23. And as long as European companies continue importing minerals labelled as Rwandan origin, the financial and political incentives for this system remain intact.

The agreement also undermines the Congolese state. By treating Rwanda as a legitimate supplier of resources that originate in Congo, the EU strips Congo of its sovereign rights. It deprives Congo of tax revenues, export earnings, employment opportunities and the chance to develop an industrial mining sector. It reinforces a neo-colonial pattern in which African resources are extracted from one country, laundered through another and consumed in Europe without accountability.

Perhaps the most painful reality is that European consumers benefit directly from Congolese misery. Every smartphone, laptop or electric vehicle that uses minerals laundered through Rwanda carries a hidden human cost that is invisible to most Europeans but deeply felt by Congolese communities.

Europe's Ethical Failure and the Path Forward

Europe has positioned itself as a global champion of human rights, ethical sourcing, sustainability and rule-based international order. Yet the minerals agreement with Rwanda represents a profound violation of these principles. The EU is failing to uphold its own laws and policies. The Conflict Minerals Regulation requires companies to ensure their supply chains do not contribute to armed conflict, yet the EU itself signed a deal that encourages the opposite. The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive requires responsible sourcing practices, yet European institutions are choosing sourcing routes that are structurally irresponsible.

If the EU wishes to reclaim its moral credibility, it must take several decisive steps. First, it must immediately suspend its agreement with Rwanda. Second, it must acknowledge the DRC as the rightful owner of the minerals that Rwanda exports. Third, it must invest in Congolese-led traceability systems, infrastructure and industrial development so that Congo can process and refine its own minerals. Fourth, it must sanction networks that facilitate smuggling and conflict financing. Fifth, it must centre Congolese voices—particularly those of civil society, provincial authorities and mining cooperatives—in any future discussions about resource governance.

The EU must choose between convenience and principle. The lives of millions of Congolese citizens depend on that choice.

Conclusion: Europe Must Face the Truth

The EU–Rwanda minerals agreement is more than a diplomatic mistake; it is a political lie, an ethical contradiction and a direct betrayal of the Congolese people. It rewards Rwanda for a system of plunder, it fuels conflict in eastern Congo, and it undermines the sovereignty of a nation whose natural wealth should be a source of prosperity, not suffering.

Europe must face the truth: its green transition will never be ethical as long as it relies on stolen Congolese minerals. The future of Africa and the moral credibility of Europe demand a different path—one rooted in justice, transparency and respect for African sovereignty.

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References

• Euronews (2025). DR Congo Conflict: Why Is the EU Under Pressure to Reconsider Its Minerals Agreement With Rwanda?
• EUobserver (2025). EU Urged to Suspend Rwanda Minerals Deal After Luxembourg Trader Linked to Smuggled Coltan.
• The Guardian (2025). DRC Calls EU Minerals Deal With Rwanda "Obvious Double Standard."
• Global Witness (2024–2025). Investigation Into Traxys and Rwanda's Role in Smuggling Conflict Minerals From DRC.
• United Nations Group of Experts on the DRC (2010–2024). Reports Submitted to the UN Security Council.
• Human Rights Watch (2023–2025). Reports on Rwanda's Involvement in M23 and Abuses in Eastern Congo.
• Amnesty International (2021). Rwanda/DRC: Profiting From Blood Minerals.
• International Crisis Group (2022–2025). Reports on M23, Eastern Congo Conflict, and Regional Dynamics.
• Marysse, S. & Geenen, S. (2009). The Political Economy of the Great Lakes Region.
• Stearns, J. (2011). Dancing in the Glory of Monsters.

Why the UN Mapping Report on the DRC Was Buried:

Why the UN Mapping Report on the DRC Was Buried:

Western Complicity, UN Cowardice, African Silence, and the Devaluation of African Lives

Introduction: A Crime Covered Up

The 2010 UN Mapping Report should have changed everything. It didn't.

Covering the period from 1993 to 2003, this damning investigation documented 617 serious crimes committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)—mass killings, systematic sexual violence, torture, forced displacement, and the deliberate targeting of civilians. Most explosively, it concluded that atrocities committed by the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) against Rwandan Hutu refugees and Congolese Hutu populations could constitute acts of genocide if proven before a competent court.

Yet the report was buried. Deliberately. Systematically. Shamelessly.

No tribunal was established. No perpetrators were prosecuted. No justice was delivered. The recommendations for accountability mechanisms and truth-seeking processes were quietly shelved.

This was not diplomatic inertia. This was calculated suppression.

The forces that conspired to bury the Mapping Report include: the strategic interests of the United States and United Kingdom in protecting their allies Rwanda and Uganda; the institutional cowardice of the United Nations; the paralysis of the African Union; the negligence of the DRC government itself; and the brutal truth that African lives—no matter how many, no matter how horrifically ended—simply do not matter enough to Western powers.

Had these crimes occurred in Europe, the response would have been immediate, overwhelming, and unrelenting. Sanctions. Tribunals. Military intervention. Media saturation. Diplomatic mobilisation.

But these were African victims. So the world looked away.

The result is one of the greatest unpunished crimes in modern history—a crime that continues to fuel instability, violence, and impunity across the Great Lakes region today.

1. The Massacres Nobody Cared About: How Hutu Civilians Were Dehumanised and Erased

The Narrative That Killed Them

One of the most chilling reasons the massacres of Hutu refugees were ignored is devastatingly simple: the international community decided that all Hutus were guilty.

After the 1994 Rwandan genocide, the world constructed a morally convenient binary: Tutsis as victims, Hutus as perpetrators. This crude framework became the dominant lens through which Western governments, media organisations, and humanitarian agencies interpreted everything that followed.

Entire populations of Hutu civilians—women carrying babies, elderly people unable to walk, children, families fleeing in terror—were collectively stigmatised. They were automatically labelled "interahamwe" or "genocide perpetrators," regardless of age, gender, or individual history. The overwhelming majority had never participated in any crime. Many had fled Rwanda in 1994 fearing chaos or reprisals. Thousands were forcibly displaced by retreating government forces.

But nuance was inconvenient. So they were all marked as guilty.

The Hunting Grounds

When these civilians were hunted down and massacred in the forests of Zaire—Tingi-Tingi, Shabunda, Walikale, Mbandaka, and countless unmarked killing sites—their deaths provoked almost no international sympathy.

The Rwandan Patriotic Army pursued refugees across hundreds of kilometres. They bombed camps. They blocked humanitarian access. They conducted systematic executions.

And the world watched in silence.

Humanitarian agencies, Western diplomats, and major media outlets rarely portrayed the victims as innocent. The prevailing attitude was clear: their fate was not a priority. If they were killed, it was not a moral emergency. If they were hunted, it was not treated as a crime. If they disappeared into mass graves, it did not shake the global conscience.

Even NGOs and UN agencies—normally vocal champions of civilian protection—adopted cautious, ambiguous language. Reports acknowledged killings but hesitated to use the word "massacre." Many humanitarian workers later admitted they operated in a climate where questioning the RPF's narrative could jeopardise access, funding, or professional reputation.

The Silent Catastrophe

The result was a catastrophe conducted in near-silence: hundreds of thousands of unarmed Hutu civilians—women with babies on their backs, elderly men unable to walk, newborn infants, disabled people, entire families—were exterminated, deliberately starved, chased through forests, or drowned in rivers.

And because they were Hutu, and because the global narrative had already branded "Hutu" as synonymous with "genocide perpetrator," their suffering generated no international outrage.

This racialised and politicised indifference is one of the darkest chapters in the international response to the Great Lakes crisis. It explains why the Mapping Report's findings on possible genocide were treated as an inconvenience rather than a moral imperative.

The Double Standard Exposed

The victims were people the world had already dehumanised. People whose lives had been stripped of innocence in the global imagination. People for whom there was no political cost in letting them die.

If these killings had happened to European civilians—women, children, and elderly people fleeing war—the response would have been instant and overwhelming. Tribunals. Sanctions. Military intervention. Media campaigns. Humanitarian mobilisation.

But because the victims were African Hutus, already marked with collective guilt, the world allowed their suffering to be erased.

The genocide and massacres carried out against Hutu refugees in Zaire remain one of the greatest unacknowledged crimes of the late twentieth century. The silence surrounding their deaths exposes a profound moral failure: the refusal to recognise the full humanity of all victims, regardless of ethnicity, geography, or political convenience.

2. Western Complicity: How the US and UK Protected Their Allies

Rwanda and Uganda: The Indispensable Clients

For nearly three decades, Rwanda and Uganda have been amongst the most valuable African allies of the United States and the United Kingdom. After 1994, Rwanda was rebranded as a symbol of post-conflict reconstruction and development efficiency. Washington and London invested heavily in building the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) as a regional partner.

Both countries served critical Western strategic purposes:

• Counterweights to French influence in Central Africa
• Reliable partners in counter-terrorism and peacekeeping operations
• Aligned with Western economic and security priorities
• Led by English-speaking elites marketed as modernisers

This carefully constructed political architecture stood in direct contradiction to the Mapping Report's findings. The report accused Rwandan and Ugandan forces of mass atrocities, unlawful killings, and deliberate targeting of civilian populations.

Implementing the report would have required the US and UK to confront governments they had heavily funded, armed, and politically championed. It would have exposed glaring contradictions in their foreign policies. It could have opened the door to allegations of indirect complicity in atrocities.

So they buried it.

Diplomatic Obstruction Behind Closed Doors

During the drafting of the Mapping Report, Rwanda mounted an aggressive campaign to discredit it. Kigali threatened to withdraw its peacekeeping troops from UN missions—a threat the UN took seriously, given Rwanda's participation in Darfur and elsewhere.

The US and UK did not publicly oppose Rwanda's pressure. Instead, their diplomats intervened repeatedly behind the scenes to soften the political impact. They discouraged Security Council debates. They undermined efforts to create a tribunal. They advised the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to "manage" the fallout quietly.

The report was published without a follow-up mechanism, without a budget for implementation, and without an assigned institutional home.

This was not negligence. This was deliberate sabotage.

Protecting the Narrative

The Mapping Report contradicted the dominant narrative that portrayed Rwanda as a post-genocide success story and Paul Kagame as a disciplined reformer. Acknowledging that Rwanda's army committed large-scale atrocities in the DRC—possibly even genocide—would have shattered years of Western political messaging.

Such an admission would have undermined decades of diplomatic alignment and foreign-aid strategy. Western governments prioritised the preservation of their narrative over justice for victims.

They chose geopolitics over morality. Strategy over accountability. Alliance over truth.

3. The UN's Institutional Cowardice

Hostage to Troop Contributors

The United Nations relies heavily on troop-contributing countries for peacekeeping operations, and Rwanda is one of the largest contributors. When confronted with Kigali's threats to withdraw troops, UN leadership panicked. The possibility of destabilising missions in Darfur and elsewhere became a powerful incentive to avoid provoking Rwanda.

As a result, the UN Secretariat adopted a defensive, paralysed posture. It refused to push the Security Council for action. It avoided strong public statements. It failed to create a follow-up team.

The UN chose institutional convenience over its moral mandate.

Bureaucratic Abandonment

Once the Mapping Report was published, the UN's internal machinery effectively froze. No unit was designated to handle implementation. No resources were assigned. No timetable was established. The report became an orphan within the system—a document without an owner.

Senior UN officials admitted privately that without support from the US or UK, there was "no point" pushing for implementation.

Translation: If Western powers don't care, neither do we.

Selective Morality

The UN's failure reflects a broader, uglier pattern: global institutions respond more urgently to crises in regions perceived as strategically valuable or politically sensitive. African crises—no matter how deadly—rarely trigger the same urgency.

The silence surrounding the Mapping Report demonstrates an uncomfortable truth: African lives are not treated with equal value in the global hierarchy of suffering. Crimes that would provoke international outrage in Europe, the Middle East, or East Asia are tolerated or ignored when they occur in Africa.

4. The African Union's Betrayal

Diplomatic Paralysis

The African Union failed spectacularly. It did not endorse the Mapping Report. It did not discuss it in any serious way. It did not even acknowledge it publicly.

This silence is partly explained by the significant influence Rwanda and Uganda wield within the organisation. Both countries are active in AU peacekeeping missions, mediation initiatives, and continental diplomacy.

Confronting the Mapping Report would have required the AU to criticise two of its most strategically active members.

So it said nothing.

Fear of Precedent

The AU is composed largely of governments with their own unresolved histories of conflict and human-rights abuses. Supporting an independent tribunal for crimes in the DRC could open the door to similar demands for investigations into Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Nigeria, and others.

Many African leaders prefer silence over a mechanism that could one day be used against them.

Self-preservation trumped justice.

Abandoning Congolese Victims

The AU has issued numerous statements on international justice when Western countries are involved. Yet it remained completely silent on atrocities documented in the DRC—crimes committed by African armies against African civilians on African soil.

This silence represents a betrayal. It reflects a deeper problem: pan-African institutions often lack the political courage to confront powerful member states.

5. The DRC Government's Negligence

Kinshasa's Paralysis

Perhaps the most tragic element in the Mapping Report's burial is the role of the Congolese government itself. Despite being the victim state, the DRC never seriously fought for implementation.

Successive governments—from Laurent-Désiré Kabila to Joseph Kabila to Félix Tshisekedi—failed to mobilise regional diplomacy, push the Security Council, or lobby the African Union.

Political survival, internal divisions, and fear of regional retaliation paralysed action.

Co-optation and Corruption

Some Congolese politicians and business elites have economic ties with Rwanda and Uganda. Others rely on regional militias for security or political influence. For years, Congo's state institutions have been too weak, too corrupt, or too fragmented to pursue coherent justice.

This fragmentation made it easy for foreign powers to shape the narrative and undermine accountability.

Missed Opportunities

The DRC could have:

• Established a special national tribunal
• Referred the case to the International Criminal Court
• Requested a hybrid court with foreign judges
• Initiated diplomatic mobilisation across Africa
• Funded documentation and legal investigations

None of this happened.

The country with the most to gain from the Mapping Report simply abandoned it.

6. The Brutal Truth: African Lives Don't Matter Enough

The Central Reason

A central reason the Mapping Report was ignored is painfully, brutally simple:

The victims were African, and the crimes occurred in Africa.

Had the same crimes occurred in Europe—Ukraine, for instance—the reaction would have been immediate, forceful, and sustained. Emergency Security Council meetings. Ad hoc tribunals. Sanctions. Daily media coverage. Massive financial and military mobilisation.

But when millions die in Africa, the world responds with silence.

The Racialised Hierarchy of Suffering

Western governments and international institutions have historically shown greater willingness to act when crises occur in regions perceived as culturally or strategically closer to the West. Ukraine, with its geopolitical importance and European identity, triggered unprecedented international mobilisation.

African crises rarely elicit such responses.

This reveals a moral hierarchy that places African lives at the bottom.

NGOs and Selective Visibility

Major international NGOs—often based in Europe and North America—produce reports on the DRC. But the scale of advocacy campaigns, media pressure, and political lobbying for African victims is far smaller compared to crises in Europe or the Middle East.

The Mapping Report required a sustained global advocacy movement. It never materialised. Media coverage faded quickly. NGOs issued statements, but they were not backed by campaigns capable of influencing the Security Council.

"African Noise Fatigue"

Global audiences are desensitised to African crises due to decades of negative portrayals. This creates a perception that violence in Africa is normal, inevitable, even expected.

Such narratives reduce the political cost of ignoring mass atrocities.

This structural indifference is one of the fundamental reasons the Mapping Report failed.

7. The Consequences of Impunity

Emboldening Perpetrators

By failing to act, the UN and the international community sent a clear message:

"Crimes committed in the DRC will not be punished."

This emboldened Rwanda-backed groups like M23, which re-emerged multiple times over the past decade.

Perpetuating the Wars

Unpunished atrocities are a recipe for further violence. The DRC continues to experience insecurity, displacement, and proxy warfare. Millions remain at risk because the original crimes were never addressed.

Destroying Trust

For Congolese communities, the Mapping Report's burial symbolises the failure of the international system to protect African lives. It undermines trust in the UN, the ICC, and the African Union.

Strengthening Authoritarianism

Shielding Rwanda and Uganda from accountability strengthened authoritarianism in both countries. It normalised the use of proxy militias and cross-border aggression.

Conclusion: A Collective Crime

The failure to implement the UN Mapping Report was not an accident. It was not bureaucratic inertia. It was not diplomatic complexity.

It was a deliberate, collective failure.

The strategic interests of the US and UK. The political manipulation of the UN system. The paralysis of the African Union. The weakness and negligence of the DRC government. And a global hierarchy of suffering that places African lives at the bottom.

Millions of victims—Rwandan Hutu refugees, Congolese civilians, women, children, elders—continue to wait for justice. Their suffering was recorded, documented, and acknowledged.

And then deliberately ignored.

The Mapping Report remains a powerful, damning reminder: justice is not determined by the scale of human suffering, but by the geopolitical value of the victims.

Until this changes, the Great Lakes region will remain trapped in cycles of violence and impunity.

And the world will continue to look away.

References

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