When the earth caved in eastern Congo last week, more than 200 Congolese miners were buried alive. Those who survived spent the next several days pulling hundreds of bodies from the red clay that has become increasingly essential to powering the evolution of technology within the U.S.
The collapse came less than a month after another mine in the Central African nation collapsed, killing more than 200 miners as well.
The disasters hit months after the United States entered a “peace for minerals” pact with Congo and Rwanda, giving the U.S. and Rwandan interests a bigger hand in mining and processing the country’s critical ores like coltan and cobalt needed to power U.S. smartphones, data centers, and electric vehicles. The disasters underscore the price that Black communities in Congo are paying to support technological change.
Much of the world’s reserves of cobalt, coltan, and lithium lie in the Congo, turning millions of tons of Congolese rock into high-priced battery packs that are driving hundreds of billions of dollars of development in the U.S. while miners earn only a few dollars a day.
In Rubaya, where the latest collapse took place, rebels tax miners and leave workers unprotected in hand‑dug tunnels that routinely become mass graves in a single afternoon. Of the roughly 255,000 Congolese people digging for minerals, an estimated 40,000 are children, working in pits that poison their air and water and are linked to respiratory disease, food insecurity, and routine beatings.
“We often see an objectification of the mining communities,” said Maurice Carney, executive director of Friends of the Congo, a group based in Washington. “We don’t hear their voices, we don’t hear their concerns, they’re not part of the decision‑making process.”
President Donald Trump said the agreement that the U.S. entered into with Congo and Rwanda, which was signed in December, would help end a decades-long conflict in the region that has led to millions of deaths.
But Congolese lawyers, miners, and U.S. activists argue Black communities at the epicenter of the trade are being sidelined from decisions that determine who profits and who pays with their lives. Their condition mirrors those of Black communities in the U.S. that are also facing the brunt of the neighborhood and environmental impact of the increased dependence on these minerals as vehicle manufacturing facilities and data centers are being disproportionately placed in Black neighborhoods.
“One thing that has been consistent throughout all of these accords, agreements, [and] meetings has been the absence of the local community — those who are most aggrieved, those at the epicenter of the conflict,” said Carney, a former research consultant for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.
The December agreement gives American firms preferential access to new copper, cobalt, and coltan projects, and commits Congo to exporting a minimum amount of minerals through U.S.-backed rail and refinery corridors.
None of those terms were debated in Congo’s parliament, even though they could force changes to national mining laws and, lawyers argue, the constitution itself.
In January, Congolese attorneys filed a complaint at the country’s Constitutional Court, saying the strategic partnership violates a law that requires parliamentary approval for international deals that touch on sovereignty. While the court has yet to rule, lawyers say even getting a formal hearing would be a rare acknowledgment that communities living atop these minerals have a legal say in how they’re used.
“The sovereignty of the Congolese people has been violated,” said attorney Jean-Marie Kalonji, who is a member of a collective of lawyers and human rights defenders who filed a petition in January with the Constitutional Court of the Democratic Republic of Congo. “By filing this case with the Constitutional Court, we are assuming our responsibility as Congolese citizens to protect the sovereignty of our country and safeguard our patrimony for future generations.”
Human rights groups say Trump’s promise to “end decades of violence and bloodshed” has fallen flat. Groups say the agreement actually rewards Rwanda with a bigger role than it previously had in processing and exporting the very minerals that have fueled the conflict.
The region has been of particular interest to Trump as the American government looks for ways to work around China to acquire rare earth minerals. China accounts for nearly 70% of the world’s rare earth mining, including the vast majority of legal mines operating in Congo, and controls roughly 90% of global rare earths processing.
“While the U.S. mining firms secure privileged access to Congo’s vast reserves of critical minerals, promises of peace and security remain hollow,” said Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the Oakland Institute, a California-based political think tank.