American technology company Apple disputes allegations that its products contain illegally mined and laundered ‘blood minerals’. The Congolese government has filed complaints against Apple subsidiaries in France and our country.
In response, the company said it requires its suppliers to meet the “highest standards in the industry.”
A day after Kinshasa announced it was filing a complaint against Apple, the company responded Wednesday night. For months, the African country has accused Apple of buying minerals smuggled from its volatile east to Rwanda. In neighbouring Congo, they are laundered and “integrated into global supply chains,” Kinshasa said.
Apple now says it informed its suppliers earlier this year, “as the conflict intensified,” that they “needed their smelters and refiners to suspend supplies of tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold from Congo and Rwanda.” Congo had already defaulted on the company in April.
Rwanda has also rejected the allegations, saying Kigali is “a repetition of unfounded accusations and suspicions, designed to generate media interest around one of the world’s largest companies.”
The mineral-rich eastern Congo has seen regular violence since the 1990s. Tensions have worsened since the return of Rwandan-backed M23 rebels in late 2021.