How ‘conflict-free’ minerals are used in the waging of modern wars

By Mark Griffiths, Reader in Political Geography, Newcastle University
Mohamed El-Shewy, Lecturer in Political Geography, Newcastle University

Minerals such as cobalt, copper, lithium, tantalum, tin and tungsten, which are all abundant in central Africa, are essential to the comforts of everyday life. Our phones, laptops and electric vehicles would not function without them.

These minerals are also tied intimately with conflict. For decades, military and paramilitary violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and on its borders – particularly…

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