Gold miners form a human chain while digging an open pit at the Chudja mine in the Kilomoto concession near the village of Kobu, 100 km (62 miles) from Bunia in north-eastern Congo, February 23, 2009. Civil conflict in Congo has been driven for more than a decade by the violent struggle for control over the country’s vast natural resources, including gold. FILE 

The M23 rebel movement is raking in millions of dollars monthly from illegal gold exports in the mineral rich province of North Kivu, reports say.

DRC media quoting the Enough Project said that the Washington-based NGO had urged the UN to rein in the rebel movement that is blamed for the debilitating conflict to the country’s east.

The NGO reported last week that since war started in the province, illegal groups have exported about 12 million tonnes of gold worth $500 million.

The dominant group in the illegal trade is the M23, Enough said.

The lucrative smuggling has allowed the group to finance its military activities in eastern DRC, even as peace talks with the Kinshasa government drag on in Kampala.

Its smuggling network is propped up by links with the local militia who control a sizeable portion of the trade in the region.

In March former M23 leader Bosco Ntaganda surprisingly surrendered to the American embassy in Kigali, and asked to be transferred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

He was linked to a gold smuggling affair where a private US aircraft was seized at Goma with a 10 kg gold cargo said to belong to the rebel chief.

After his transfer to The Hague his deputy Col Sultani Makenga is said to have taken over the trade, reviving what the Enough Project calls the most important conflict linked with minerals in eastern DRC.

Source: http://www.africareview.com