PREVIEW
Insiders warn this is the first of many planned measures to step up pressure on Kigali over its Congo intervention
The United State Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Gasabo Gold Refinery, Chairman Jean Malic Kalima, and General Manager Bosco Kayobotsi on 25 June, along with three associated mining firms – Bugambira Mines, Wolfram Mining and Processing, and Rwinkwavu Mining Corporation. Washington officials say that at least 60 kilograms of gold were smuggled from eastern Congo-Kinshasa to Gasabo earlier this year under the ‘strict oversight’ of Rwandan officials, with Rwandan Defence Force (RDF) soldiers and Mouvement du 23 Mars (M23) rebels providing armed escorts from Bukavu to Kigali.
The US Treasury said that Gasabo Gold Refinery Ltd (Gasabo Gold) had ‘acted as a key partner to Rwandan government officials and M23 rebels as they sourced and transported gold out of eastern DRC.’
‘The United States will not allow rogue groups to profit from the illicit mineral trade and destabilise the region,’ said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. The Congo’s mineral wealth ‘rightfully belongs to the Congolese people,’ he added.
Last year, the European Union put Gasabo Gold on its own sanctions list (AC Vol 66 No 6, M23 militia blocks peace talks until Brussels drops sanctions). The US sanctioned the RDF as an entity earlier this year (AC Vol 67 No 5, More pressure on Kigali).
Several reports by civil society groups, the United Nations and eye-witness accounts have pointed to the smuggling of minerals worth hundreds of millions of dollars including gold, cobalt and coltan out of Congo-K into Rwanda. The sanctions and Bessent’s words accompanying them will infuriate President Paul Kagame, who has accused the US and others of pro-Congolese bias because they want to secure their own access to the minerals.
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