{"id":137183,"date":"2025-02-03T07:54:03","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T05:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/pressure-grows-on-eu-to-freeze-minerals-deal-with-rwanda-over-drc-fighting\/"},"modified":"2025-02-03T07:54:03","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T05:54:03","slug":"pressure-grows-on-eu-to-freeze-minerals-deal-with-rwanda-over-drc-fighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/pressure-grows-on-eu-to-freeze-minerals-deal-with-rwanda-over-drc-fighting\/","title":{"rendered":"Pressure grows on EU to freeze minerals deal with Rwanda over DRC fighting"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mp_wrapper\">\n  <div class=\"mepr-unauthorized-message\">\n    <p>You are unauthorized to view this page.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"mepr-login-form-wrap\">\n            \n<div class=\"mp_wrapper mp_login_form\">\n                  <!-- mp-login-form-start -->     <form name=\"mepr_loginform\" id=\"mepr_loginform\" class=\"mepr-form\" action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/login-2\/\" method=\"post\">\n            <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_username\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n                              <label for=\"user_login\">Username<\/label>\n        <\/div>\n        <input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" value=\"\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_password\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n          <label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n          <div class=\"mp-hide-pw\">\n            <input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" value=\"\" \/>\n            <button type=\"button\" class=\"button mp-hide-pw hide-if-no-js\" data-toggle=\"0\" aria-label=\"Show password\">\n              <span class=\"dashicons dashicons-visibility\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n            <\/button>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n            <div>\n        <label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n      <div class=\"submit\">\n        <input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button-primary mepr-share-button \" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137183\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_process_login_form\" value=\"true\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_is_login_page\" value=\"false\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n    <\/form>\n    <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n    <div class=\"mepr-login-actions\">\n        <a\n          href=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/login-2\/?action=forgot_password\"\n          title=\"Click here to reset your password\"\n        >\n          Forgot Password        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n\n      \n    <!-- mp-login-form-end --> \n  <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\">\n<p>Belgium leads calls for suspension of agreement after Rwanda-backed rebels captured city of Goma The EU is under mounting pressure to suspend a controversial minerals deal with Rwanda that has been blamed for fuelling the conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Calls to freeze the agreement have grown after fighters from the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group captured the city of Goma in the eastern DRC, escalating a decades-old conflict and raising fears of a regional war.<\/p>\n<p>With the people of Goma, in North Kivu province, going hungry and relief efforts paralysed, Belgium, the former colonial power in DRC and Rwanda, is leading calls for the EU to suspend the 2024 agreement intended to boost the flow of critical raw materials for Europe\u2019s microchips and electric car batteries. \u201cThe international community must consider how to respond, because declarations have not been enough,\u201d said Belgium\u2019s foreign minister, Bernard Quintin, last week during a visit to Morocco. \u201cWe have the levers and we have to decide how to use them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Diplomatic sources said Belgium had pressed for a suspension of the EU-Rwanda minerals agreement at several levels, including at a meeting of EU foreign ministers last Monday. Brussels and Kigali signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on sustainable raw materials value chains in February 2024. The EU gets access to raw material sources that include tin, tungsten, gold, niobium and potential lithium and rare earth elements. Rwanda is the world\u2019s largest extractor of the rare earth metal tantalum, which is used in chemical equipment. The EU is giving Kigali \u20ac900m (\u00a3750m) to develop its infrastructure in raw materials extraction, health and climate resilience.<\/p>\n<p>The money comes from the global gateway, the EU\u2019s \u20ac300bn answer to China\u2019s belt and road initiative, which funds infrastructure projects around the world. After the deal was signed, the infuriated Congolese president, F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi, described it as \u201ca provocation in very bad taste\u201d. Tshisekedi accuses Rwanda of plundering the DRC\u2019s resources, and several UN reports say Rwanda uses the M23 group as a means to extract and then export minerals. Rwanda denies this and says its primary interest in eastern DRC is to eradicate fighters linked to the 1994 genocide.<\/p>\n<p>Read more&gt;&gt;<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/feb\/02\/pressure-grows-on-eu-to-freeze-minerals-deal-with-rwanda-over-drc-fighting\">The Guardian<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/environmental-news-en\/pressure-grows-on-eu-to-freeze-minerals-deal-with-rwanda-over-drc-fighting\/\">Pressure grows on EU to freeze minerals deal with Rwanda over DRC fighting<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\">Vastuullisuusuutiset.fi<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[575,274,17804],"class_list":["post-137183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-environmental-news-en","tag-eu","tag-freeze-minerals-deal-with-rwanda"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137183\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}