Afronline – The Voice Of Africa

“Officers of the General Direction of Migration (DGM) intercepted on 31 December 2009 at the N’Djili airport of Kinshasa, 3.8 tons of Coltan coming from South Kivu”. These words are from Radio Okapi’s website, the United Nations radio in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), co-managed by Monuc and the Hirondelle Foundation.

The news was confirmed on January 3 by Alexis Mikandji, the Director of Cabinet of the Minister of Mining of the Congolese government.

The owner of the goods seems to be Patra Investment, a trading post which buys minerals but is not recognized by the Minister of Mining.

The Ministry is still waiting for explanations from the South Kivu authorities, who must justify their authorization to embark 3.8 tons of Coltan.

“We as Ministry have not been informed about any trading post qualified to buy and sell minerals under this name,” has declared Mikandji. “And we don’t know which was the final destination of the goods we have intercepted. We need the whole documentation brought with this shipment to have more clarification”.

As soon as the Minister of Mining learned of what was happening, it sent its inspectors to the N’Djili airport.

“Every resource has been mobilized,” declared Alexis Mikandji to Radio Okapi “among which the first was the DGM”.

“Goods have been intercepted and stored in the deposit of the AAA airlines company”.

Radio Okapi remembers that “on 18 December 2009 an Indian citizen was condemned by the great instance court of Kinshasa to six months jail and a fine of 10,000 US dollars for having tried to export fraudulently a pocket of diamonds of almost 44,000 carats”.

By Joshua Massarenti - Afronline.org (source: Radio Okapi/Fondation Hirondelle)