“We cannot fight climate change to the detriment of the rights of communities who are on the front line in the exploitation of raw materials that support the energy transition,” declares, almost by way of presentation, Jean-Mobert Senga, researcher at Amnesty. International, in an interview given to this Kinshaha newspaper. But in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the mining of cobalt, used for most lithium-ion batteries, and copper, essential in clean energy technologies, has caused and is causing “forced evictions of communities without adequate compensation, fires houses and other violations. human rights”, according to a report that the NGO published this Tuesday.

The investigation, Promote change or the status quo?, (“Drive change or continue as usual?”), produced in collaboration with the Congolese organization Initiative for Good Governance and Human Rights (IBGDH), focuses on the region of Kolwezi, a town of half a million inhabitants. inhabitants located in the south of the country, reconverted to the heart of the exploitation of these minerals, in which companies from China, Canada and Dubai participate. Its authors conducted 130 interviews with people linked to six mining projects and studied documents, photographs, videos, satellite images and data provided by the companies interviewed.

“This is just a significant and relevant sample of the forced evictions that are taking place. But there are other companies and other human rights violations like worker exploitation or pollution. This report particularly focuses on the abuses of violent evictions,” explains Senga.

There Democratic Republic of Congo Approximately the share of the world’s cobalto reserves is responsible for 70% of the world’s production of this mineral, the material primarily essential for manufacturing lithium ion batteries that are used to power a wide variety of devices, including automotive and electric vehicles. mobile phones. For example, the battery of an electric vehicle requires about 13 kilograms of cobalt, and that of a cell phone about 7 grams, according to this report. Furthermore, the African country has the seventh largest copper reserves in the world and is the third largest producer. Both minerals are essential for building electric cars, wind turbines, solar panels and batteries, that is, they are essential for the world to abandon fossil fuels and turn to others more sustainable sources, thus stopping global warming. But they are not very widespread and their main reserves are in Africa, Latin America, Australia and Southeast Asia.

A “just” transition

The decarbonization of the global economy “must be fair and not lead to new violations of human rights,” insisted Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, referring to this report. One of the investigated cases describes what happened in a neighborhood in central Kolwezi, where 39,000 people live. Hundreds of them were ordered to leave their homes or given no choice but to move after the 2015 reopening of a large open-cast mine that last year produced some 128,000 tonnes of copper and 2,500 tonnes of cobalt. The compensation they received did not allow them to buy a house with running water or electricity elsewhere and their quality of life was considerably reduced. The project is managed by the company Compagnie Minière de Musonoie Global SAS (COMMUS)which brings together the Chinese Zijin Mining Group Ltd. and the Société congolaise Générale des Carrières et des Mines SA (Gécamines).

The situation is getting worse every year as demand increases every day and communities are increasingly exposed to all types of risks.

Jean-Mobert Senga, Amnesty International

“We didn’t ask to move, the company and the government came and told us: ‘There are minerals here,'” Edmond Musans, 62, told the researchers, who had to leave and created today today a committee which represents the interests of more than 200 families threatened with eviction.

“They evict people by force, threaten them and intimidate them into leaving their homes, or encourage them to agree to ridiculous compensation,” denounces Donat Kambola, president of the IBGDH, who has been investigating for almost 10 years. , denounces and protects affected communities. by mining in the province of Lualaba, the capital of which is Kolwezi.

COMMUS assured Amnesty International that it intends to improve communication with relevant parties. The company must “urgently publish its mine development plans and all environmental and social impact assessments it has carried out or commissioned, as well as resettlement plans for the most exposed communities”, the report demands .

They forcefully evict people, threaten and intimidate them into leaving their homes, or pressure them into accepting paltry compensation.

Donat Kambola, IBGDH

The World Bank estimates that the demand for cobalt will increase by 500% until 2050, but these data do not imply that the inhabitants of this region, the heart of the production of this mineral, benefit from its financial advantages. “Consumers, businesses and governments must become aware of this perverse effect of the ecological transition,” insists Senga. The researcher explains that the cobalt that leaves this Kolwezi mine travels first to China, but this is not the end point of the journey. “There it can undergo an initial refining process and then reach Europe, the United States and other countries,” he explains.

More and more exposed

Another of the cases studied describes how Congolese soldiers arrived one morning in a town, called Mukumbi, near the Mutoshi mine, managed by the company Chemicals of Africa SA (Chemaf), a subsidiary of Dubai-based Chemaf Resources Ltd., began burning homes and beating residents who tried to stop them. “Two children told me that the soldiers were burning the houses,” Ernest Miji recalled to investigators. “I went out and saw soldiers of the Republican Guard setting fire to the houses and I asked the captain why. He told me they were following orders. He gave me a torch and told me to set the church on fire. When I refused, he started hitting me,” he described.

Satellite images confirm this story and show that Mukumbi was razed to the ground on November 7, 2016. In 2019, Chemaf agreed to pay $1.5 million through local authorities, but some residents only received $300 . Chemaf denies any wrongdoing and responsibility for the destruction of Mukumbi.

In another of the mining projects studied, a cobalt and copper mine, located 5 kilometers from Kolwezi and operated by a subsidiary of Eurasian Resources Group (ERG), based in Luxembourg and whose main shareholder is the government of Kazakhstan, around 20 farmers said the military arrived and razed their fields in February 2020, without warning. A pregnant woman further explained that three soldiers captured and raped her in front of others. In its response to the authors of the report, the ERG said it had no control over the deployment of the military, but, given the content of the investigation published on Tuesday, it urged local authorities to investigate.

The report’s authors call on Congolese authorities, who in most cases “carried out or facilitated” the evictions, to immediately end forced evictions, promote an impartial commission of inquiry and enforce laws on mining activity and expulsions, in accordance with international standards. human rights standards. Additionally, companies have a responsibility to investigate identified abuses, offer meaningful remedies, and take steps to prevent further harm.

“The situation is getting worse every year as demand increases every day and communities are increasingly exposed to all types of risks. We hope this report will alert consumers, who need to know what is happening, and publicly expose these companies,” Senga added.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has half of the world’s cobalt reserves and is responsible for 70% of the world’s production of this mineral, a raw material for lithium-ion batteries.

Finally, Amnesty International and the IBGDH documented the case of the Kakula mine, considered “the largest copper reserve discovered in Africa”, located 25 km from Kolwezi and operated by a company called Kamoa, in which there are Canadian capital and capital. Chinese, among others. Of the 40,000 people who lived in Kamoa town, more than 1,300 lost their homes, businesses or fields to mining. The report studied the cases of 45 families settled by the company in another neighborhood after the mine’s expansion forced them to leave their homes, and verified that the houses they received in exchange were not nothing to do with those they expelled and did not have, for example, showers, running water or electricity. Kamoa confirmed that the toilets were not connected to a sewage network and said he wanted to apply “international best practices”, but that it was difficult in an area where there were, for example, no ‘electricity. The report highlights, however, that the company was able to overcome these practical obstacles in the mine where it operated.

“The international mining companies involved have abundant financial resources and can easily afford to introduce the changes necessary to safeguard human rights, establish processes that improve the lives of people in the region and provide redress for abuses suffered,” concludes Donat Kambola, from the local organization IBGDH.

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