The United States government announced on Thursday, June 25, that it has imposed sanctions on a Rwandan company and its owner, accused of reselling gold illegally extracted from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to fund the anti-government M23 armed group.
The Treasury Department stated that Gasabo Gold Refinery and its head, Jean Malic Kalima, were key partners of Rwandan government officials and M23 rebels, for whom they extracted and transported gold from eastern DRC.
“The US will not allow outlaw groups to profit from illegal mineral trade…”
The US ministry confirmed that Rwandan soldiers and M23 fighters secured the transport of gold to the Congolese city of Bukavu, near the Rwandan border, and then to Gasabo’s headquarters in the Rwandan capital, Kigali.
“In early 2026, 60 kg of gold, worth millions of dollars, were moved from eastern DRC to Gasabo in this manner,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.
“The United States will not allow outlaw groups to profit from illegal mineral trade to destabilize the region. The DRC’s mineral wealth legitimately belongs to the Congolese people,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the statement.
The US sanctions freeze all assets directly or indirectly held by the targeted individuals or companies in the United States. They also prohibit American companies and citizens from doing business with them, as well as foreign companies with US subsidiaries or that use the dollar in their transactions.
M23 derives significant revenue from taxes on mineral production and trade
Since its resurgence in late 2021, the anti-government M23 group (“March 23 Movement”), with support from Kigali and the Rwandan army, has seized large areas in eastern DRC, a region rich in natural resources and ravaged by conflict for three decades.
A report by NGO Global Witness, published in early June, highlighted that hundreds of tons of coltan have been looted in eastern DRC by the armed group and laundered in Rwanda before being exported to smelters supplying electronics giants.
M23 took control of the mining town of Rubaya in April 2024, which provides 15% of the global coltan production, a mineral critical for the electronics industry. The armed group earns substantial revenue from a tax on mineral production and trade, and approximately 120 tons of coltan were exported each month to Rwanda between May and October 2024, according to UN experts.
