A new report by Amnesty International has detailed the summary execution of 18 artisanal miners in the eastern provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, attributing the killings and widespread human rights violations to the March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group.
Titled “We Did Not Come to Play: M23 Abuses in Artisanal Mines and Trafficking of Gold and Coltan to Rwanda,” the investigation focuses on mining operations around Rubaya and Lomera. The report documents severe physical abuse, forced labor, arbitrary detention in makeshift underground cells, and the illegal transfer of high-value minerals across the border into Rwanda.
Amnesty’s findings, compiled from dozens of eyewitness interviews, victim testimonies, and visual evidence, reveal that M23 fighters forced miners to extract coltan and gold under inhumane conditions, subjecting workers to torture, corporal punishment, and ransom demands. The rights organization warned that the illicit extraction and cross-border trafficking of strategic minerals could amount to the war crime of pillage under international law. In response to the documented abuses, Amnesty called on international buyers, the United States, and the European Union to suspend mineral transactions linked to Rwanda until verified supply-chain tracking and independent monitoring mechanisms are established.
TE/Sf/lb/abj/APA