" DRC accuses Apple of using illegally exploited minerals from conflict-torn east" 25 April 2024

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo is accusing Apple of using "illegally exploited" minerals extracted from the country's embattled east in its products, lawyers representing the African country said Thursday, April 25. The DRC's lawyers have sent Apple a formal cease and desist notice seen by Agence France-Presse (AFP), effectively warning the tech giant it could face legal action if the alleged practice continues. The Paris-based lawyers for the DRC accused Apple of purchasing minerals smuggled from the DRC into neighbouring Rwanda, where they are laundered and "integrated into the global supply chain".

Contacted by AFP, Apple pointed to statements from its 2023 annual corporate report regarding the alleged use of so-called conflict minerals that are crucial for a wide range of high-tech products, "Based on our due diligence efforts... we found no reasonable basis for concluding that any of the smelters or refiners of 3TG (tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold) determined to be in our supply chain as of December 31, 2023, directly or indirectly financed or benefited armed groups in the DRC or an adjoining country," it said.

The DRC's mineral-rich Great Lakes region has been wracked by violence since regional wars in the 1990s, with tensions reheating in late 2021 when March 23 Movement (M23) rebels began recapturing swathes of territory. [...] French lawyers William Bourdon and Vincent Brengarth sent the formal notice this week to two Apple subsidiaries in France and lawyer Robert Amsterdam to the tech company's US headquarters.