‘Peace remains only a promise’ for millions in eastern DR Congo, General Assembly hears

The Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) cautioned against growing global demand for “blood-stained minerals” in the rush to net-zero, in her speech to the UN General Assembly.Against a backdrop of decades of violent insecurity and mass displacement in the resource-rich eastern region of the vast country – where a deadly Ebola outbreak is also spreading – Judith Suminwa insisted on Wednesday that few other situations “illustrate so painfully the gap between international commitments and [people’s] lived reality”. “We cannot build a decarbonized economy through blood-stained minerals,” she said. “And we will not bring about a just transition by reproducing a greenwashed version of our past dependencies.” Speaking to leaders gathered at UN headquarters in New York, she maintained that the DRC “continues to face a war of aggression led by Rwanda through its proxy the AFC/M23” (Alliance Fleuve Congo/M23 Movement). Other armed groups, particularly the Allied Defense Forces (ADF) and CODECO are exacerbating the humanitarian crisis. Elusive peaceThe Prime Minister pointed to several developments that have opened up prospects for an end to violence, such as the peac...