EUROPE’S DIRTY SUPPLY CHAINS: HOW CONGO’S BLOOD MINERALS STILL FUEL THE WEST
The lie of “ethical minerals” has once again been exposed. A new investigation by Global Witness has revealed that the European metals trader Traxys, headquartered in Luxembourg, has been buying coltan sourced from war zones in eastern Congo — funneled through Rwanda, washed clean of its bloody origin, and sold to the world’s tech giants.
According to the report, published on April 15, Traxys purchased 280 tonnes of coltan from Rwanda in 2024, most of it supplied by African Panther Resources Limited. But behind these statistics lies a chilling truth: much of that coltan came from Rubaya, in North Kivu — a region now under the control of M23 rebels, whose campaign of terror and occupation has already displaced millions.
Global Witness obtained testimonies from two traffickers who confirmed that M23 taxes coltan exports by 15 percent, directly profiting from the minerals that end up in European supply chains. In Rubaya, the rebels control not only the mines but the entire transportation route, extracting money and power from a resource that should have been the lifeline of Congo’s development. Instead, it finances its destruction.
Rubaya produces about 15 percent of the world’s tantalum, a metal critical for manufacturing mobile phones, laptops, and electric vehicles — products that the West proudly markets as part of a “green transition.” But there is nothing green about the blood spilled for these minerals. Every smartphone, every electric car battery made with Congo’s coltan carries the fingerprints of a child miner, a displaced family, or a community burned to the ground.
When confronted, both Traxys and African Panther Resources denied wrongdoing. They claimed to verify the mineral’s origin by analyzing its tantalum and niobium composition, insisting that Rwandan coltan is distinct from Congolese. But this defense collapses under the weight of evidence. A 2015 UN report already documented how traffickers and processors in Rwanda routinely mix DRC “white coltan” with locally mined “black coltan” to disguise its origin. The science, it seems, bends to profit.
Global Witness has called on the European Union to end its strategic raw materials partnership with Rwanda and to make public all commercial data relating to these supply chains. But the question is deeper than policy — it’s moral. Europe cannot preach human rights and sustainability while enriching itself on minerals soaked in Congolese blood.
This is not just a story of one company; it is the story of a system designed to conceal exploitation behind corporate paperwork. The coltan mined under M23’s guns travels through Rwanda, stamped as “clean,” then flows through European traders like Traxys to manufacturers in the West — each layer washing away accountability until nothing remains but profit.
And as Europe builds its electric future, Congo is left in darkness — its children enslaved by the very industry that claims to be “sustainable.”
Until there is genuine traceability, transparent trade data, and accountability for companies complicit in this chain of theft, the EU’s so-called “green transition” will remain red — stained by the suffering of a nation bled dry for its minerals.