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Blood Minerals — How conflict minerals from Eastern DRC
The smartphone in your pocket contains tantalum. In many cases, that tantalum was mined in a conflict zone in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, and its journey to the factory passed through our community in Kasese, Uganda.
CECIC’s 2025 Blood Minerals report documents a highly organised, state-facilitated system through which conflict minerals coltan, cassiterite, and wolframite are smuggled from the DRC through Uganda and into global supply chains. Drawing on UN Group of Experts reports, U.S. Geological Survey data, and field-based research, the report finds that Uganda functions as both a transit corridor and a laundering hub.
The scale of this system is significant. In a single week in March 2025, 195 tonnes of 3T minerals crossed the DRC’s main borders. Armed groups generated an estimated $140 million in mineral revenue from Ituri Province alone in 2024. The July 2025 UN Group of Experts report named Uganda, alongside Rwanda, as a key laundering corridor and identified specific trading entities operating in Kasese and Kampala.
This is happening in our community and we are uniquely positioned to document it. And we are calling on researchers, policymakers, and global supply chain actors to recognise the urgency of this issue and treat the Uganda corridor as the priority it clearly is.
