《2016.10_Striking Gold_ How M23 and its Allies are Infiltrating Congo#39;s Gold Trade》.pdf

S A S H A L E Z H N E V Striking Gold How M23 and its Allies are Infiltrating Congo’s Gold Trade By Ruben de Koning and the Enough Team October 2013 WWW.ENOUGHPROJECT.ORG Striking Gold How M23 and its Allies are Infiltrating Congo’s Gold Trade By Ruben de Koning and the Enough Team October 2013 COVER PHOTO In this April, 2011 photo, two former National Congress for the Defense of the People, or CNDP, soldiers patrol a gold mine near Kaniola, South Kivu, Eastern Congo. SASHA LEZHNEV, ENOUGH PROJECT ii T he Enough Project • | Striking Gold: How M23 and its Allies are Infiltrating Congo’s Gold Trade Executive summary The M23 rebel group has taken over a profitable part of the conflict gold trade in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC. It is using revenues from the illicit 1 trade to benefit its leaders and supporters and fund its military campaign by building mil- itary alliances and networks with other armed groups that control territory around gold mines and by smuggling gold through Uganda and Burundi. M23 commander Sultani Makenga, who is also allegedly one of the rebels’ main recruiters of child soldiers accord- ing to the U.N. Group of Experts on Congo, is at the center of the conflict gold efforts.2 This report documents how Makenga and his former co-commander Bosco Ntaganda have led the M23 rebels to work with local armed groups in gold-rich territories to smuggle gold to Uganda via an M23-controlled border crossing, as well as to Burundi, where it is sold internationally. Much of this conflict gold then reaches markets in the