On DRC's coltan and Paris' monument for Rwandans

New podcast episode:

 

Coltan smuggled from the DRC; and a monument for the Rwanda genocide in Paris

This week, in RFI's Spotlight on Africa podcast, I look at the Great Lakes region. First, the NGO Global Witness shows us with a new report how coltan is being smuggled out of the DR Congo, amid the conflict in the east, to world companies, via Rwanda. And in the second part of this episode, we'll hear from the artist Grada Kilomba about her journey to create a unique monument for the city of Paris to commemorate the Rwandan genocide of 1994.

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This month of June, a new report from the NGO Global Witness has shown how coltan is being smuggled from the DR Congo, and sold to world companies via Rwanda, amid the devastating conflict in the eastern provinces of the DRC.

Coltan, short for columbite-tantalite, is a mineral from which the metals tantalum and niobium are extracted, both seen as critical raw materials by companies from the United States, the European Union, China and Japan.

The report shows that conflict minerals from the war-torn east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are found in everyday tech products made by major world companies.

It also links the illegal trade to Rwandan companies clearly and to leading global brands including Amazon, Ericsson and Sony, sourcing minerals  from eastern DRC.

The traffic is linked to the M23 militia, accused of widespread sexual violence, summary executions and torture.

It took the British non-governmental organisation over a year of investigation through extensive documentary and field research to be able to prove the exploitation system.

Another Global Witness investigation from April 2025 had revealed that coltan linked to conflict in the eastern DRC likely entered the European Union market through international commodities trader Traxys. 

Previous reports also demonstrated the implication of companies such as Apple, from 2022.

The NGO pursued its investigation for months, then cross-referenced its findings with surveys conducted by the United Nations (UN) and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs). 

Alex Kopp, the author of the report and expert at Global Witness is our first guest.

>> Listen here: https://www.rfi.fr/en/podcasts/spotlight-on-africa/20260623-blood-minerals-and-memory-the-great-lakes-in-focus

On commemoration

The artist Grada Kilomba was invited to create a unique monument for the city of Paris to commemorate the Rwandan genocide of 1994.

The monument consists of two black brass steles bearing an engraved tribute to the hundreds of thousands of men, women and children massacred between April and July 1994.

It was unveiled in the heart of Paris on 2 June 2026, in the presence of the two countries' Presidents Emmanuel Macron and Paul Kagame.

Kilomba is herself a Portuguese artist with African roots, from Sao Tomé and Angola.

She was raised in Portugal, and has worked in Germany, Brazil, England and beyond, mostly reflecting through performances and installations on the history of African and black people in general, across centuries and continents, including on the slave trade. 

She was chosen through a very selective process to design this monument, the first of its kind in France. And she decided to go to Rwanda to meet some survivors and start her own research to complete the project, titled ‘The Archive’.  

Her creative process led her to reflect on France and Europe's responsibility in the tragic events.

Grada Kilomba is the second guest of this episode.

 

>> Listen here: https://www.rfi.fr/en/podcasts/spotlight-on-africa/20260623-blood-minerals-and-memory-the-great-lakes-in-focus