DRC leader warns UN of tech disparities as conflict persists News
Marceloluk022, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
DRC leader warns UN of tech disparities as conflict persists

In a UN speech Wednesday, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Judith Suminwa, alerted to disparities between mineral producing nations that facilitate AI and renewable energy growth and nations who implement these technologies.

“It would be both unjust and dangerous for added value, jobs, know-how, and technologies to remain concentrated far away from the communities that are making these changes possible,” Suminwa said. “[The DRC] rejects the old model that limits producer countries to crude extraction while processing, research, technology, and the bulk of the profits are concentrated elsewhere.”

The DRC is the world’s largest cobalt producer, accounting for roughly half of global cobalt reserves. Cobalt is a highly valued mineral resource, used particularly in electric car, computer, and cell phone batteries. In 2024, the DRC reportedly supplied 76 percent of the global cobalt market.

A major facilitator of emerging technologies, the DRC has not experienced economic benefits that other nations–mainly western nations and China–have from the research, development, and market implementation of electric vehicles and other emerging technologies. African thinkers and leaders have discussed ways to bring electric car and battery manufacturing, research, development, and marketing to the DRC, which would require coaxing private industry to invest in such infrastructure.

However, conflict in the country–often centered around control of mineral resources–has continued to make it difficult for the nation to capitalize on its natural wealth. In particular, rebel group M23 continues to control eastern regions of the country with rich mineral resources and active mining operations. While the group’s motivations blend a mix of ethnic, historical, cultural, and social factors, observers increasingly perceive the group as seeking to exploit the region’s cobalt, gold, and other mineral commodities.

“We cannot build a decarbonized economy through blood-stained minerals,” Suminwa said. “And we will not bring about a just transition by reproducing a greenwashed version of our past dependencies.”

Eastern neighbor Rwanda has backed M23 forces in DRC for years, in part because of ties to M23’s Tutsi-leadership. Following the Rwandan genocide, which saw the Hutu majority massacre hundreds of thousands of minority Tutsis, many Hutu belligerents fled to eastern DRC, eventually forming opposing rebel groups like Forces Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR). By backing M23, Rwanda’s Tutsi-led government can project power in the region for security and economic purposes while avoiding direct culpability for M23’s actions.

In 2025, the US brokered a peace deal between the DRC and Rwanda. The US State Department at the time described the deal as a “groundbreaking bilateral initiative that unlocks the vast economic potential of the…region and creates opportunities for the US private sector.” However, peace has not come quickly as both governments continue to meddle in the region.

“[F]or millions of Congolese…peace remains only a promise,” Suminwa said. 

The conflict has caused an immense humanitarian toll, with over seven million people displaced. Suminwa expressed hope that, with developing technologies and international peace structures in place, the nation and its global partners can create “jobs, skills, and shared prosperity” among its people. 

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On September 25, 1789, the United States Congress sent twelve proposed constitutional amendments to the state legislatures for ratification. Ten of these were adopted in 1791 and became known as the Bill of Rights.

A proposed amendment on Congressional representation was never ratified, and another on Congressional pay was not ratified until 1992 when it became the 27th Amendment.