The UN Security Council called on Thursday for "sustained efforts" in preventing the illegal trade of natural resources from the Democratic Republic of Congo, as gold in particular fuels conflict between armed groups in the region.
The UN experts who monitor implementation of the sanctions detailed multiple cases of trafficking in a recent report, stating that gold from the country was flowing into Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, the United Arab Emirates and Tanzania.
The document specified that the United Arab Emirates promised to tighten controls on the source of gold arriving in the country.
"The group traced Congolese gold to regional refineries and other international destinations and found that some refineries acted as brokers, used cash payments, undertook refiner-to-refiner trading and used corporate networks to obscure ownership, thereby inhibiting supply chain accountability," the report said.
The experts added that "in terms of natural resources, the Congolese gold sector remained vulnerable to exploitation by armed groups and criminal networks and to unregulated trading."
