About the project and its impacts
Since 2018, Mwenga Territory in South Kivu has become a focal point of conflict, exploitation, and resilience. A cluster of Chinese-owned companies (Yellow Water Resources, Oriental Resources Congo Sarl, New Continent Mineral, Congo Blueant Minerals, Groupe Cristal, and BM Global Business) have established operations in the area. Despite laws protecting community rights, these companies began mining without consultation or free, prior and informed consent. Local authorities have been complicit, granting licences and protection in exchange for revenue while ignoring the destruction unfolding on the ground.
These companies have been repeatedly linked in media and investigative reports to irregular licensing, limited or no community consultation, environmental damage, and tensions with local actors. Research by independent monitors finds evidence of pollution, land degradation and the use informal arrangements that allow companies to operate despite weak compliance with Congolese law. Government action has at times included suspensions and probes, while civil society reporting documents arrests, reprisals against protesters and operations continuing amid armed group presence. Company requests for comment are frequently recorded as unanswered, underscoring opacity around ownership, financing and community commitments.
Farmland that once supported families is now unusable, and drinking water has become contaminated. With agriculture impossible, hunger and disease have deepened. Roads that once connected villages have been destroyed by mining trucks, further isolating communities already distant from the main city, 180 kilometres away.
The companies promised to build roads, schools, hospitals, and health centres, but these have never materialised. Instead, the community has faced displacement and intimidation. Families forced from their homes were sometimes offered a mere €50 or nothing at all, told the land now belonged to the state or to the companies. In places under rebel influence, miners have operated alongside the M23 armed group; in other areas, they have aligned with government forces, shifting allegiance as needed to continue extracting gold. The outcome has been the same for local people: dispossession, repression, and deepening poverty.
The social impacts are severe. Women and children have borne the heaviest burden. With farming no longer possible, women have lost their primary livelihoods, and cultural norms exclude them from employment in the mines. Some adolescent boys, mainly over seventeen, perform occasional work during school breaks, exposed to hazardous chemicals like cyanide. People with disabilities and elderly residents face acute vulnerability, left behind as families struggle to survive. The community’s social fabric, once anchored in cooperation and traditional knowledge, has been torn apart by exclusion and fear.
About the community-led struggle
Our CRE collaborator – Synergie des Organisations de la Société Civile pour la promotion des Droits Humains et de l’Environnement (SYDHE) has been supporting the affected communities to advocate for their rights.
Despite repression, the people of Mwenga have continued to organise and demand accountability. In 2022, a peaceful march was violently dispersed, and three civil society members were detained by a rebel camp before being freed through community intervention. The following year, activists raising human rights concerns were falsely accused of rebel affiliation, part of a pattern in which the government and local authorities use security rhetoric to silence dissent. Yet even under these conditions, local groups have remained steadfast, refusing to respond with violence.
In 2023, a significant step was taken with the identification of 350 victims of mining-related violations. The formation of a victims’ association marked a turning point in community organising. The association has focused on rights training, access to justice, and advocacy for compensation and transparency. By documenting harms and building legal cases, the group seeks to restore a measure of accountability in an environment where justice is often inaccessible due to the presence of both government and rebel control.
The community’s resistance is grounded in peaceful methods including marches, public denunciations, and partnerships with local and national civil society organisations. They are calling for the restoration of order, the removal of illegal and opaque mining companies, and the arrival of partners willing to engage transparently with communities. Above all, they demand compensation for damages and the rehabilitation of their environment.
The people of Mwenga envision development that restores rather than destroys. For them, a good project integrates human rights, environmental protection, and social cohesion. They propose community-led mining and agricultural cooperatives, sustainable livelihoods, and investment in long-term stability. Such projects, they argue, must build on local knowledge, provide fair employment, and promote equality.
Amid continuing conflict, justice remains uncertain. Government institutions are weak, and armed groups control parts of the territory. Yet the community continues to plan for a time when peace allows reconstruction. Civil society actors are calling for training, resource mobilisation, and the design of post-war recovery projects to rebuild both livelihoods and ecosystems. Their goal is not only survival but renewal, reclaiming the right to live with dignity and stability on their land.
Further resources
- Chinese mining firms told to stop work and leave Democratic Republic of Congo– South China Morning Post
- Securing insecurity: Semi-industrial gold mining and violence in Mwenga, South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo – International Peace Information Service
- DR Congo: Six Chinese gold mining companies in South Kivu suspended over illegal operations