In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a government commission is seizing funds owed to people displaced by mines

LUBUMBASHI, Democratic Republic of Congo — After devastating losses of life, 11 dead and several sickened by persistent air and river pollution, the village of Kabombwa has disappeared from the map for good. More than 1,000 residents have sought refuge elsewhere in Lualaba Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), including the neighboring mining town of Fungurume.

Kabombwa’s peace began to wane in 2020 when a nearby plant run by Chinese company Tenke Fungurume Mining SA (TFM) began producing lime. After more than a year of talks about financial compensation, Kabombwa residents have been paid between $3,000 and $5,000 by the government when they were relocated, according to a Fungurume town hall official. But for the villagers, that amount is far from enough. It’s not enough to buy a house or build a new one in their new villages.

One of the reasons for the insufficient compensation is the administrative process of the provincial government, civil society organizations told Mongabay.

More specifically, through the Relocation Commission (Commission de délocalisations), a body set up by the Lualaba provincial government to oversee evictions and relocations. This commission ultimately collects a percentage of the total funds owed to the resettled people. Mining companies, for their part, rarely get involved in the dispute once the amount has been paid, leaving the government to manage compensation for the affected.

Unfair compensation has become a pattern in mining relocations in Lualaba, a province with large deposits of copper and cobalt, two essential minerals for phones, computers and renewable energy technology. The rush to extract these valuable minerals has local residents worried not only about relocation itself but also about relocation under unfair circumstances.

Paying for your own move

How is compensation received? First, the Relocation Commission conducts an appraisal to determine the value of the resettled people’s assets. The commission is made up of government officials, members of parliament, members of civil society and land technicians. Once the appraisal is done, the mining company makes payments. Currently, this is done in the form of bank transfers to the resettled landowners, but a few years ago, beneficiaries received cash.

However, the Relocation Commission receives 10% of the total cost of payments to be made to the resettled people, the sources explained. Jean-Pierre Kalenga, a Lualaba government official and chairman of the commission, tells Mongabay that this percentage is to fund its operations and the salaries of its members.

Ten percent of the total amount to be distributed disappears when it reaches the beneficiaries. When communities speak of unfair compensation in such circumstances, private companies do not take responsibility. Yet they paid 10% of the total amount due to the commission’s technicians, civil society organizations complain.

This means that those who are relocated are funding the expertise that leads to their relocation, Kalenga says.

According to the Mining Code, as well as the Mining Regulations (Annex 18), the holder of mining rights, i.e. the mining company, is the party responsible for the relocation of people exposed to the harmful effects of mining. This would suggest that the mining company bears the entire cost, including the additional commission of 10%, and not the beneficiaries.

The compliance of the commission and the companies with the law is therefore controversial. In October 2023, the Minister of Mines of Lualaba Province, Jacques Kaumba, called on interested parties to familiarize themselves with the mining code, which he said is “quite clear” on the relocation and resettlement process. He even believes that the Relocation Commission should be disbanded.

“It’s the mining company that has to relocate people. It’s not the state that relocates people. We facilitate the process and monitor the relocation. But when you say the money has been transferred, to whom and for what? Then you run the risk of putting us in the middle and making us both judge and jury. The state doesn’t relocate; we facilitate. It’s the mining company that relocates people,” Kaumba said.

Resettlement without resettlement

According to Donat Kambola, a human rights activist from Kolwezi, the capital of Lualaba, when the Relocation Commission was established in 2017, it was in line with the needs of the time. He explains that the mining code was not as clear as it is today. After a review in 2018, “the role and work of the commission should be adjusted,” Kambola tells Mongabay. Nevertheless, in 2022, a provincial law made the Relocation Commission permanent and established it as the framework for the representation of the provincial government in the relocation process.

As a result, government involvement deprives displaced people of independent recourse, Kambola says. “When it comes to victims’ rights, once again, the provincial commission has not established any systems for handling complaints or appeals. So when someone has a claim, they usually have no one to go to,” he says.

Another problem is that companies continue to relocate people without a resettlement plan. According to Lambert Mendy, coordinator of the New Civil Society of Congo, a network of organizations spread across the country, part of the problem is that people are used to “receiving monetary compensation instead of resettlement.” However, he acknowledges that some victims are asking to be resettled elsewhere; for example, the mining company Metalkol has relocated residents of the village of Samukonga. However, this resettlement option, organized by mining companies, has not satisfied some victims, who complain of long waits.

In Tshabula, for example, a village near the town of Musonoie in Kolwezi, and Kakanda, a village near Fungurume, farmers are waiting to be relocated by mining companies COMMUS and Boss Mining, a subsidiary of Eurasian Natural Resources PLC. Despite state investment in the process, there is discontent. Each relocation requires more funds for properties that people say are undervalued, such as houses and fruit trees.

But according to Christophe Kabwik, an activist who has long defended the residents of Kalukuluku, a village near the Ruashi mine east of Lubumbashi city, mining companies are reluctant to organize resettlements for people who have to leave their mines. Kabwik believes the reason is that mining companies prefer to pay less, giving cash, rather than building new houses. In 2006, with the help of the city’s deputy mayor, Ruashi Mining rejected the option of resettling about 200 people who asked to be relocated.

Mongabay reached out to Ruashi Mining to learn more about their stance on the relocation, but the company had not responded to our request for comment by the time of publication.

Jean-Pierre Kalenga, a Lualaba government official, says that in recent years, some relocation candidates have asked for resettlement rather than money. “It’s their right, as well as those who are asking for money. We also encourage the resettlement approach,” Kalenga tells Mongabay.

Amid the rush to discover key minerals in the Democratic Republic of Congo, human rights activist Kambola believes the most important aspect today is compliance with clearly defined steps in mining regulations, especially Annex 18. In the meantime, he says, “villages are disappearing without any resettlement plan.”

Banner image: Makonga (in blue), who died in June 2024, walks among the rubble of what was once his village. Photo: Eric Cibamba.

This story was first published in French here on Mongabay French on July 29, 2024.

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