For several months, the country has accused the apple brand of buying minerals smuggled from the country’s unstable east to neighboring Rwanda, where they are laundered and “integrated into global supply chains”.
The complaint targets these facts, but also the “deceptive commercial practices” that Apple allegedly uses “to assure consumers that the technology giant’s supply chains are clean”, specifies the press release from lawyers Robert Amsterdam (Washington), William Bourdon and Vincent Brengarth (Paris) and Christophe Marchand (Brussels).
The complaint in France, of which AFP was aware, was filed in Paris and targets the offenses of concealment of various crimes, including war crimes, laundering of forgeries and use of forgeries, and deception.
According to the press release, the DRC intends with this “first” legal action “to confront the individuals and companies involved in the chain of extraction, supply and marketing of natural resources and minerals plundered in the DRC.”
“The scale and duration of these activities have inflicted unfathomable destruction and suffering on the civilian population in parts of the country,” the statement added.
“These activities fueled a cycle of violence and conflict by financing militias and terrorist groups and contributed to forced child labor and environmental devastation,” the lawyers add.
In April, the DRC put Apple on notice on this subject.
The multinational then referred to elements published in its 2023 annual report on conflict minerals, claiming to have found “no reasonable basis” to say that its supply chains as of December 31, 2023 had “directly or indirectly financed or benefited armed groups in the DRC or in a neighboring country.”
Kigali also considered that the allegations of its giant neighbor were “unfounded”.
AFP
