Africa taking action against China’s predatory practices in mining sector Chinese companies were ‘looting’ Africa, furious from Nigeria to Congo, surrounded the dragon!

attacks in congo
Earlier in May also, Namibia had canceled the license of Chinese mining company Xinfeng Investments. Namibia took this step because it had unfairly obtained a license for lithium exploration. At the same time, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has suspended the operations of six Chinese companies in South Kivu after they were found involved in illegal mining of gold and other minerals.

There was an attack in DRC on September 2 in which two Chinese citizens were killed. The attack took place when armed robbers targeted a mining convoy carrying gold in the north-eastern part of the country. Attacks on Chinese citizens have become common in Africa in recent months. In March 2023, nine Chinese nationals working at a gold mining company in the Central African Republic were killed by armed men.

Africa and China’s greed
Africa is a region of such rare mineral elements due to which China’s electronic vehicle industry is benefiting a lot. According to American think tank Wilson Center, China is at the top in terms of minerals mined in Africa. In the year 2019 alone, mineral exports from Sub-Saharan Africa to China reached $10 billion. In countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), more than 40,000 children work in cobalt, lithium and rare earth mineral element mines run by Chinese miners, according to UK NGO Rights and Accountability in Development (RAID).

Chinese miners in Africa
In its 2016 report, Amnesty International expressed concern over the use of children by Chinese companies in cobalt mining in the DRC. The DRC is Africa’s second largest country by land area. A large number of Chinese miners are involved here. China either owns or jointly operates 15 of the 19 cobalt operations in the DRC.

According to reports, the five largest Chinese mining corporations have stakes in the DRC’s cobalt and copper mines. All of them have received help of about $ 124 billion from China-backed banks. In July 2023, a measure was introduced in the US House to ban the import of minerals mined through child labor and other abusive conditions in the DRC.

Action in Ghana also
Chinese company Jiang Jiang was fined up to $90,000 by the DRC government for not following mining regulations in 2021. Jiang Jiang received a permit from the DRC’s mining ministry in 2019 to explore for gold, diamonds and other minerals. In the year 2019 itself, 33 Chinese nationals were arrested in Ghana after they were found involved in illegal gold mining operations. Ghana, Africa’s second-largest gold producer, is home to about 30,000 Chinese nationals involved in trade, mining and infrastructure projects.