[Rwanda Forum] Habyarimana J. yafashe ubutegetsi mu w'1973 kuko yari yarabisabwe na Rukeba mu w'1967?

https://youtu.be/W2INVfrU5j0?si=H_KjMPWoPmebDLlA 

--
________________________________________________________________
-Ushobora kohereza message yawe kuri : rwandaforum@googlegroups.com
-Ushobora kwiyandikisha kuri iyo groupe wandikira: rwandaforum+subscribe@googlegroups.com
-Ushobora kwikura kuri iyo groupe wandikira: rwandaforum+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
-Contact: rwandaforumonline@gmail.com
____________________________________________________
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Rwanda Forum" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rwandaforum+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rwandaforum/CAEe4F%3De9p0_5cyEvsCtSUM3yUbHLexy_N5qf_NCyDCBqoob4rQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Rwanda Forum] Africa CEO Forum i Kigali

Africa CEO Forum  yateranye mu Rwanda guhera  uyu munzi yitabiriwe n'abakuru b'ibihugu babiri gusa. Kagame ngo yari yiteguye abageze kuri 30. Twese tuzi  Kagame aba yatumiye abayobozi bose.

Iyi nama ni ubwa kabiri ibera mu Rwanda kuko  Jeune Afrique yabuze ikindi gihugu cyo kuyakira. Inama nk'izi zirahenda cyane kuko ibihugu bizakira aba aribyo bibabishinzwe budget yo kuzorganiza. Urugero   ni nk'imikino ya Cammonwealth yamaze igihe izenguruka ibihugu byinshi ariko hakabura igihugu kiyishingira ngo ibere muri icyo gihugu.  Ni umujyi wa Birmingham muri UK wari ugiye kuyorganiza wagezeho wisubiraho kubera kibura amafranga.

Kuri Kagame rero we amafranga araboneka yo gushora mu nama zibera mu Rwanda. Iyo abandi banze korganiza izo nama mu bihugu byayo, abayoboye izo nama biyambaza Kagame.

Urebye amafranga Kagame  ashoramo hakiyongeraho  abakozi, ibikoresho, transport mu gihugu no kwakira abashyitsi, u Rwanda ntacyo rukuramo. Ku mafranga  abaje mu nama bariha amahoteri, u Rwanda rubona 28% ku ijana gusa kuko ni uko umusoro ungana  ku bacuruzi bo hejuru mu Rwanda.

 

--
________________________________________________________________
-Ushobora kohereza message yawe kuri : rwandaforum@googlegroups.com
-Ushobora kwiyandikisha kuri iyo groupe wandikira: rwandaforum+subscribe@googlegroups.com
-Ushobora kwikura kuri iyo groupe wandikira: rwandaforum+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
-Contact: rwandaforumonline@gmail.com
____________________________________________________
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Rwanda Forum" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rwandaforum+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rwandaforum/CAEe4F%3DfayKddkngZ7nHwynkN87CicjpoWWgHf91DuhJFiuaAGw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Rwanda Forum] Kuki Kagame ahora avuga kwica, amaraso, n’ibindi bijyana nabyo

Kuki Kagame ahora avuga kwica, amaraso, n'ibindi bijyana nabyo.  Nubwo tuzi ko umurage n'umuco w'abatutsi ari ubwicanyi, ibi Kagame ahora avuga ni iterabwoba yumvisha Abanyarwanda ko umuhutu wamusimbura azicwa nkuko byagenze i Burundi. Kagame yavuze ko se yapfuye akakwa mu buhungiro, nyina nawe arapfa. Kuki ibyo byose Kagame abyibigirwa, ugasanga akina n'urupfu n'amaraso. Kuki amaraso ayafata nk'amazi ameneka akuma bakayibgirwa.  Ese abo babyeyi ntibaba baramureze nabi?  Ese umugore we, twita umutegarugori ugira impuhwe abana nawe ate muri iryo terabwoba ndetse na liste y'abo Kagame yishe. Uwo mugore arishimye kubana na Kagame?

 

--
________________________________________________________________
-Ushobora kohereza message yawe kuri : rwandaforum@googlegroups.com
-Ushobora kwiyandikisha kuri iyo groupe wandikira: rwandaforum+subscribe@googlegroups.com
-Ushobora kwikura kuri iyo groupe wandikira: rwandaforum+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
-Contact: rwandaforumonline@gmail.com
____________________________________________________
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Rwanda Forum" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rwandaforum+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rwandaforum/CAEe4F%3DfxYuj-riP%2BDcS3Xjhmm1R_6p5OJeaqGBL0i8WYnDk_KQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Rwanda Forum] In the east of the DRC, a war is financed by blood minerals Congolese people are angry at the plundering of their country for cobalt and coltan By Bernadette Vivuya

In the east of the DRC, a war is financed by blood minerals

Congolese people are angry at the plundering of their country for cobalt and coltan 

By Bernadette Vivuya

January 30, 2024

A gold miner excavating a mining shaft near Iga Barriere in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Image: Guy Oliver / Alamy

I'm reporting from Goma in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where I live. In Congo, people are on the frontline of the green transition: much of the world's cobalt and coltan is mined here, vital components of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, which are themselves a key part of developed nations' plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Here people are also on the frontline of a war.

For more than 20 years, the exploitation of these minerals in the east of my country has fuelled one of the continent's longest-running conflicts. It has led to the deaths of millions of people and countless human rights violations, in areas that are often difficult to access due to frequent rainfall and dirt roads that have been made dangerous by the war.

In March 2022, the M23 rebel group, which is alleged to be supported by Rwanda, resumed fighting with the Congolese army—almost 10 years after M23 was first defeated in 2013. Last year, a period of particularly intense violence came on top of more than two decades of violence of all kinds—including sexual violence. In less than two years, according to estimates by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the conflict has forced more than a million civilians to flee their homes in Northern Kivu, a province with many coltan mines. Many of them have found refuge on the outskirts of towns like Goma, creating vast camps of tents cobbled together with whatever resources were at hand. 

In this decades-long conflict, rebel groups constantly wrestle for control of the mines. "In the context of insecurity in the region, mining exploitation has been developed around artisanal miners, known as 'creuseurs'," explains Roger-Claude Liwanga, a Congolese researcher and professor at Emory Law School in Atlanta, United States. Artisanal miners use basic tools to extract minerals from the earth. "The armed groups active in the region quickly realised the potential of this situation and took control of the mines. This was all it took for them to buy the arms they needed and to enrich their leaders," Liwanga tells me.

Artisanal miners use basic tools to extract minerals from the earth

Civil society in DRC and lawmakers across the world have made efforts to try to tackle the exploitation of "blood" minerals which continues to finance this endless war. In the United States, the 2010 Dodd Frank Act requires companies listed on the stock exchange US stock exchange which use minerals to prove that they don't come from conflict zones. Parts of the act were passed in response to atrocities committed in the east of the DRC. Minerals are certified through the International Tin Supply Chain Initiative (ITSCI, an industry membership body that assists companies with their due diligence).

"These new requirements have prompted miners to organise themselves into cooperatives, which have structured themselves to meet the requirements of the certification process," explains Roger Rugwiza, who works for two mining cooperatives in Rubaya, Masisi territory, 50km west of Goma. Rugwiza ensures that the mine's operations comply with the requirements of the ITSCI label and anticipates any changes that could jeopardise the precious certification.

Here, in vast deforested areas, miners follow one another from hill to hill to dig new shafts. Rugwiza, who was a miner for a long time before rising through the ranks of the cooperative, thinks that the difficult working conditions of the men who walk the extraction sites every day with their shovels and pickaxes have eased since the legislation came into place. "The adoption of international rules to regulate mining has led to a number of improvements in the lives of artisanal miners. They have been informed of their rights, and this has led to a reduction in 'tracasseries', taxes illegally collected by state agents, a very concrete expression of the corruption that plagues the country." Rugwiza tells me. (DRC was ranked 166th in the world terms of corruption by Transparency International in 2022). "Some have also set up solidarity funds to provide a minimum level of health cover, or to lay out roads to transport their produce to the trading centres."

In this decades-long conflict, rebel groups constantly wrestle for control of the mines

However armed groups still have very real strength: M23 has once again occupied several areas of the region, as have other groups such as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and the local Maï-Maï militias. In those regions in the hands of warlords, there is no question of asking for better working conditions, even less of asking for the application of rules, whether Congolese or international. The state can't apply legislation in areas where it cannot impose its authority, says Liwanga. And "armed groups that exploit the sites don't feel bound by international texts."

Discerning which materials fund armed groups is also difficult: mines are often located next to each other, and minerals from rebel-held mines are often mixed with duly certified stocks. "Clean minerals are thus 'contaminated' by blood minerals'," Liwanga says. In 2022, a report by the NGO Global Witness singled out the ITSCI certification mechanism, accusing it of "facilitating the laundering of minerals from mines controlled by militias or produced using child labour." The report alleges that "the certification mechanism, which many international companies trust to source responsibly, is also used to launder smuggled or trafficked minerals."

"This was already a reality in the past, with a border made up of rural areas and lake that were easy to cross discreetly. It's even easier now that the M23 occupies a vast area adjacent to the border," says Alexis Muhima of the civil society observatory for peace minerals (OSCMP), a local organisation that advocates transparency, accountability and best practice in the mining sector. "It is essential to extend strict control of the value chain to the DRC's neighbouring countries. That's the only way we can be sure that the products bearing the label really come from the sites indicated and are not illegal imports from the DRC." Last March, Congolese finance minister Nicolas Kazadi estimated that the country was losing $1bn dollars a year as a result of these illegal exports (out of a budget of $16bn dollars for 2023). 

This trafficking provokes anger among the Congolese people, many of whom denounce the plundering of their country. "International rules governing the purchase of minerals from conflict zones allow buyers to clear their consciences, but they are not enough to put an end to blood minerals," adds Muhima. "We will only put an end to this exploitation and its consequences for the population if we adopt a region-wide approach that takes account of the problem of illegal exports of Congolese minerals via neighbouring countries."

Correction: An earlier version of this piece said Northern Kivu contained many cobalt and coltan mines. Cobalt is more extracted in the south of the country. The piece has been updated to reflect this.

Bernadette Vivuya is a journalist and documentary film maker based in Goma

Related articles

The women keeping the peace in Uganda

In Derna, politicians are to blame

Crude justice: the Nigerians taking Shell to court

Foreign Correspondence Africa

--
________________________________________________________________
-Ushobora kohereza message yawe kuri : rwandaforum@googlegroups.com
-Ushobora kwiyandikisha kuri iyo groupe wandikira: rwandaforum+subscribe@googlegroups.com
-Ushobora kwikura kuri iyo groupe wandikira: rwandaforum+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
-Contact: rwandaforumonline@gmail.com
____________________________________________________
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Rwanda Forum" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rwandaforum+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rwandaforum/CAEe4F%3Dcj1JwbhW-BcKLtY4NG3Mrv%3DAvkz_Ut8nQnXXU1_vFRyw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Rwanda Forum] DR Congo accuses Apple of using 'blood minerals' from war-torn east

DR Congo accuses Apple of using 'blood minerals' from war-torn east

Paris (AFP) – The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo is accusing Apple of using "illegally exploited" minerals extracted from the country's embattled east in its products, lawyers representing the African country said Thursday.

Issued on: 25/04/2024 - 21:19

3 min

The Tenke Fungurume mine, one of the largest sources of copper and cobalt in the world, in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo © Emmet LIVINGSTONE / AFP

ADVERTISING

The DRC's lawyers have sent Apple a formal notice seen by AFP, effectively warning the tech giant that it could face legal action if the alleged practice continues.

The Paris-based lawyers accused Apple of purchasing minerals smuggled from the DRC into neighbouring Rwanda, where they are laundered and "integrated into the global supply chain".

Contacted by AFP, Apple pointed to statements from its 2023 annual corporate report regarding the alleged use of so-called conflict minerals that are crucial for a wide range of high-tech products.

"Based on our due diligence efforts... we found no reasonable basis for concluding that any of the smelters or refiners of 3TG (tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold) determined to be in our supply chain as of December 31, 2023, directly or indirectly financed or benefited armed groups in the DRC or an adjoining country," it said.

ADVERTISING

The DRC's mineral-rich Great Lakes region has been wracked by violence since regional wars in the 1990s, with tensions resurging in late 2021 when rebels from the March 23 Movement (M23) began recapturing swathes of territory.

The DRC, the United Nations and Western countries accuse Rwanda of supporting rebel groups, including M23, in a bid to control the region's vast mineral resources, an allegation Kigali denies.

"Apple has sold technology made with minerals sourced from a region whose population is being devastated by grave human rights violations," the DRC's lawyers wrote.

Sexual violence, armed attacks and widespread corruption at sites providing minerals to Apple are just some of the claims levelled in the letter.

Macs, iPhones and other Apple products are "tainted by the blood of the Congolese people", the DRC's lawyers said.

-'Notoriously insufficient'-

French lawyers William Bourdon and Vincent Brengarth sent the formal notice this week to two Apple subsidiaries in France, and lawyer Robert Amsterdam send them to the tech company's US headquarters.

"Apple has consistently relied on a range of suppliers that buy minerals from Rwanda, a mineral-poor country that has preyed upon the DRC and plundered its natural resources for nearly three decades," they wrote.

The DRC is rich in tantalum, tin, tungsten and gold –- often referred to as 3T or 3TG –- that are used in producing smartphones and other electronic devices.

The tech giant's efforts to ethically source its minerals are "notoriously insufficient", Bourdon and Amsterdam wrote.

"Apple seems to rely mainly on the vigilance of its suppliers and their commitment to respect Apple's code of conduct," reads the official letter.

But both their suppliers and external audits appear to rely on certification from the Tin Supply Chain Initiative (ITSCI), "which has been shown to have numerous and serious shortcomings", the formal notice said.

The ITSCI programme is one of the main mechanisms set up over ten years ago to ensure the supply of "conflict-free" minerals in the DRC, according to the British NGO Global Witness.

In April 2022, Global Witness accused ITSCI of contributing to the laundering of conflict minerals, child labour, trafficking and smuggling in the DRC.

Apple is not the only major company relying on the "flawed" system, Global Witness said.

Tesla, Intel and Samsung are among the companies that depend on ITSCI, but Global Witness's report revealed that "ninety percent of the minerals" from specific mining sites reviewed by the programme did not come from validated mines.

The DRC's formal notice to Apple includes questions about "3T minerals used in Apple products" and demands that the tech company respond "within three weeks".

"All legal options are on the table," the lawyers told AFP.

– 'Blood minerals' –

Growing demand for cobalt and copper to power so-called clean energy, including rechargeable batteries, has also led to forced evictions, sexual assault, arson and beatings in eastern DRC, according to a 2023 Amnesty International Report.

M23 rebels currently control large swathes of North Kivu and are encircling the provincial capital of Goma, where more than one million displaced by the war have crammed into desperate camps.

The UN said in 2023 that people living in eastern DRC faced unheard-of violence, naming it one of the "worst places" in the world for children.

Minerals are transported into Rwanda, where they are laundered to outmanoeuvre oversight meant to prevent the sale of "conflict minerals", according to Global Witness.

"The responsibility of Apple and other major tech manufacturers when they use blood minerals has for too long remained a black box," the lawyers told AFP.

© 2024 AFP

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240425-dr-congo-accuses-apple-of-using-blood-minerals-from-war-torn-east

--
________________________________________________________________
-Ushobora kohereza message yawe kuri : rwandaforum@googlegroups.com
-Ushobora kwiyandikisha kuri iyo groupe wandikira: rwandaforum+subscribe@googlegroups.com
-Ushobora kwikura kuri iyo groupe wandikira: rwandaforum+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
-Contact: rwandaforumonline@gmail.com
____________________________________________________
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Rwanda Forum" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rwandaforum+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rwandaforum/CAEe4F%3DcP-5za8eub2O-zoQedQK9084beZQY3kEqkd1g6E67-wQ%40mail.gmail.com.