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4 - The Conflicts over Solid Minerals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2012

Abiodun Alao
Affiliation:
King's College, University of London
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Summary

The conflicts and political instability that have characterized the country's history cannot be separated from its abundant natural resources. Copper, diamonds, uranium, cobalt, silver, gold, etc., have all contributed to the conflict in the DRC.

Tajudeen Abdulraheem

Diamonds … have been implicated in terrible wars, and have compounded the corruption and misrule that have had such corrosive effects [on states].

Lansana Gberie

Discussions in this chapter may have to be prefaced with the identification of the group of natural resources categorized here as “solid minerals.” Put simply, these are resources whose finished products come in solid form. Included here are natural resources such as copper, diamonds, gold, and iron. Two considerations justify a separate discussion of this class of natural resources. First, some of them, notably diamonds, have featured prominently in many of Africa's recent conflicts, making them perhaps the most controversial natural resource in the continent's post-Cold War conflicts. Second these resources evoke peculiar characteristics in their recent linkage with conflict, particularly because of their association with a number of post-Cold War security developments, including the reintroduction of foreign mercenaries, the increasing prominence of warlords' activities, and the deep involvement of external actors, especially multinational corporations and international nongovernmental organizations, in African civil conflicts.

In this chapter, I discuss how solid minerals have been linked to recent African conflicts. The central argument in the chapter is that this class of mineral resources has assumed the negative reputation it has because the structures of governance have not taken into consideration how the ease of the disposability of these resources and their high profit margins could attract the attention of an array of interest groups, including armed groups, international business interests, political elites, criminal gangs, local and international civil society, and multinational corporations, to encourage and sustain conflicts.

Type
Chapter
Information
Natural Resources and Conflict in Africa
The Tragedy of Endowment
, pp. 112 - 156
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2007

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