How roadblocks, not just minerals, fund rebels and conflict in the Congo

For over a decade it’s been widely recognised that rebel financing in the Democratic Republic of Congo is firmly linked to mining. First discovered by the Belgians in 1904, the Congolese soil harbours a huge amount of precious minerals. Subsequent industrial exploitation of copper and gold became the backbone of first Belgian colonialism and later Mobutu Sese Seko’s kleptocracy.