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By GLV reporter.

Bukavu- The UN panel of experts report released recently has exposed FARDC top officials to be men behind the conflict mineral exploitation, who are enriching themselves in the war against FDRL probably without government authority.

General Gabriel Hamis Nkumba, commonly known to the call sign “TANGO FOUR”, the second in Command in FARDC has been cited by the report to be at the center of illegal exploitation of minerals that fuel conflict in DRC.

“President Kabila has publicity recognised that the involvement of criminal networks within his forces FARDC in illegal exploitation of minerals has caused conflict of interest in army’s Constitutional mandate,” the reports reads in part.

The panel of experts report indicates that DRC effort to combat armed groups in Eastern Congo has failed and only proved chaos, increased hardship on the population, and enriched Congolese government military (FARDC) officers, mainly Gen Hamis and his network.

Experts report also points the finger at armed groups such as FDRL and CNDP in the same network of exploiters.

According to the report, President Kabila said that “the involvement of FARDC officials in illegal exploitation has led to pervasive insubordination, competing chain of command, failure to actively pursue armed groups in Eastern DRC, amounting certain cases to collision  and negligent of civilian protection.”

Kabila was also quoted in the report as saying that the criminal involvement ranges from illegal taxation, protection rackets, and indirect commercial control, to more direct coercive commercial control.

“Taken together, the consequence of this involvement networks within Congolese army FARDC in illegal exploitation of minerals has an important cause of insecurity fueling conflict in Eastern part of the country in Kivu region,” says the report.

Reports on some networks in FARDC in illegal exploitation of natural resources in Congo can be traced in areas of Manyema province, Walikale and Kibua in Kivu.

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