On 16 December 2024, the Democratic Republic of Congo filed criminal complaints against Apple and its subsidiaries in France and Belgium for concealing war crimes – pillaging and concealing the role of “blood minerals” – in its international supply chains, laundering forged materials and misleading consumers. They argue that Apple is complicit in crimes that are taking place in Congo.
As expected, Apple disputes these claims, but the Congolese government contends that Apple is complicit in crimes by armed groups in Congo’s mining regions. French and Belgian authorities seek sufficient evidence to take further legal action.
The DRC is a major source of tin, tantalum, and tungsten (so-called 3T minerals), which are essential for electronics and electric vehicles and tech companies such as Apple, Tesla, Samsung, Microsoft, and Huawei. An estimated 225,000 miners, including 35,000 children under six years old, are intensely exploited, earning less than €2 daily under brutal conditions. This includes digging deep tunnels for more than 24 hours straight, with many of them being buried alive due to collapsing tunnels. Some of these are artisanal mines controlled by armed groups that conduct massacres, mass rapes, looting, other atrocities and severe human rights abuses. As it stands, over 27 million people need humanitarian assistance. But statistics will never do justice to the richness of every single life taken as a result of our colonial, racist and capitalist systems.
It is unlikely that international law, a colonial tool, will uphold justice. Law, in general, continues to side with rich and powerful tech companies. Irrespective of the legal challenge, grassroots groups have been mobilising and advocating on the ongoing atrocities in Congo. Groups like @teamcongo.rdc, @focuscongo, @thefutureofcongo, @no_congo_no_phone have actively been raising awareness and calling on the public to take action. Like other grassroots efforts, such as the mobilisation on Palestine, Meta often shadow-bans these social media accounts.
There have also been protests outside Apple Stores in Europe and calls to boycott Apple products, including boycotting the recent iPhone 16 in September 2024. In the Netherlands, cross solidarity actions have emerged between the Palestine and Congo movements. The Black Archives are also connecting the struggles of Congo, Palestine and Sudan.
Europe’s history of pillaging, looting, plundering, enslaving, exploiting and underdeveloping Africa for its own gain continues into the present. All of us continue to be complicit in the violence and destruction ongoing in Congo, with our smartphones, laptops, and computers propping up our careers and comfort. Recently passed poet, writer, activist, and educator, Nikki Giovanni, reminds us that there is always something to do. As European states continue their genocidal acts, let Giovanni’s words ring louder for us situated in the imperial and colonial cores, that there is more to be done in our interconnected struggles for liberation.
See: Congo files criminal complaints against Apple in Europe over conflict minerals at Reuters.
Image by MONUSCO/Sylvain Liechti, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
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