House subcommittee hearing spotlights child labor, corruption in Congo cobalt supply and presses for stronger U.S. rules

Chairman Smith convened a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing to "examine the role of Chinese owned enterprises in fueling conflict, instability and human rights abuses in Africa, particularly in the mining sector," and called witnesses to testify on links between mineral extraction and violence.

The panel heard repeated testimony that cobalt, gold and other minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and neighboring countries fuel armed conflict and human-rights abuses. "This has got to stop," said Sasha Lehi Lesdev, identified in the hearing as a senior policy adviser at the Century, after describing child miners and forced labor in the DRC.

Why it matters: Witnesses and members said minerals used in phones and electric-vehicle batteries help finance armed groups and kleptocratic networks and create national-security vulnerabilities for the United States. Testimony cited estimates that the DRC supplies a dominant share of global cobalt and described gaps between existing laws or standards on…