Behind the M23’s mining racket in eastern DRC: what Amnesty’s findings reveal about control, coercion and coltan
Behind the M23’s mining racket in eastern DRC: what Amnesty’s findings reveal about control, coercion and coltan
A new Amnesty International report exposes the inner workings of the M23’s grip on artisanal mining in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, documenting summary executions, forced labour and torture while the armed group profits from a strategic mineral that powers the global electronics industry.
- Published on 21-09-2026 at 14:24
- in Kinshasa, Congo Kin
Since its resurgence in 2021, the M23 has seized large swaths of territory in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a region rich in natural resources, including the mining town of Rubaya, which supplies 15% of global coltan production, a strategic mineral for the worldwide electronics industry.
According to UN experts, the armed group has imposed a levy on the production and trade of minerals in Rubaya, a practice the M23 has always denied.
In a report released on Monday, Amnesty International says M23 fighters committed “summary executions”, “torture and other ill-treatment”, “arbitrary detention”, “forced labour” and “forced recruitment” at mining sites under the group’s control.
The organisation says it gathered information on the summary execution of 18 artisanal miners in Rubaya, in North Kivu province, and at the Lomera artisanal gold mine in neighbouring South Kivu province.
“According to witnesses and victims’ families, 10 of them were beaten to death, two were shot dead and six were abducted and later found dead,” the report specifies.
Miners told Amnesty International they were beaten if they asked for breaks, refused to hand over their ore or disobeyed orders, even in minor ways, the text adds.
More than 20 miners in Rubaya were held in underground cells and “beaten three times a day” by M23 fighters, the organisation reports.
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