On Feb. 13, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to suspend a cooperation agreement with Rwanda on a trio of minerals critical to the clean energy transition, citing their links to the ongoing violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The so-called 3T minerals — tin, tungsten, tantalum — are mined in large volumes in the DRC’s eastern provinces of North and South Kivu. Since late January 2025, a rebel group known as M23, widely believed to be backed by Rwanda, has seized key parts of the region, including the two provincial capitals, Goma and Bukavu, with the mineral trade said to be fueling the violence, according to a December 2024 report by a U.N. expert group. “Parliament regrets the European Union’s failure to take appropriate measures to address the crisis and pressure Rwanda to end its support for M23,” the European Parliament said in a statement issued after its Feb. 13 vote. It called on the EU Commission and Council “to immediately suspend the EU Memorandum of Understanding on Sustainable Raw Materials Value Chains with Rwanda, until the country ceases all interference in the DRC, including exporting minerals mined from M23-controlled areas.” French MEP Thierry Mariani, who has spoken out about the heavy toll of persistent instability in the DRC — driven in large part by the illicit exploitation of natural resources and responsible for at least 6 million deaths over nearly 30 years — the EU Parliament’s decision demands concrete action from the EU. “It’s only a resolution! Now…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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