Violence, Minerals, and the Inevitable in Central Africa

In January , the rebel group M23 captured Goma , the largest city in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo .

This troubled region remains racked by brutal inter-ethnic and multinational conflict featuring countless armed factions.

It contains some of the world’s largest deposits of key minerals, such as cobalt, which is necessary for the manufacture of electronics.

Many African states in Africa are oppressive, but few are clean and orderly or have widespread, well-developed middle-class neighborhoods.

The cities which M23 captured border Rwanda , and the difference is stark, substantially greater than the difference between the American and Mexican sides of our own border.

The region of eastern Congo becoming part of Rwanda might be the best thing for the people who live there.