Rebels in Congo funded by smuggled gold

Rebel groups in Congo are being funded by the proceeds of smuggled gold, the BBC reports on its Web site Tuesday citing a United Nations official.

Some 40 metric tons of gold is being smuggled out of the country each year, said Dino Mahtani, mostly through Uganda to Dubai.
“A lot of this gold is controlled by armed group networks, in particular the FDLR, which is a Rwandan-based rebel group partly composed by members involved in the 1994 genocide and who continue to operate in eastern Congo,” Mahtani said.
He is due to present evidence to the U.N. this week, when he will call for efforts to be made to target individuals “rather than trying to nail companies against a wall, who could easily change names from one day to the next.