Sec. 2. Findings

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Congress finds the following: The United States recognized the Democratic Republic of the Congo (hereafter referred to as the DRC ) on June 30, 1960. The DRC has long suffered from armed conflicts and threats to its territorial integrity, including by the March 23 Movement (hereafter referred to as M23 ), ISIS–DRC, also known as the Allied Democratic Forces, and the Forces Démocratiques de Liberation du Rwanda (hereafter referred to as FDLR ). Political stability in the DRC is crucial to economic growth and development in the country.

The DRC’s instability is further exacerbated by impunity, endemic corruption, exploitation of its natural resources, armed conflict, and human rights abuses. The DRC held presidential, legislative, provincial, and municipal council elections in December 2023, that were marred by irregularities, logistical difficulties and delays. The United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (hereafter referred to as MONUSCO ), first deployed in 1999, is scheduled to draw down.

Regional mechanisms have been unable to sufficiently address the longstanding insecurity. The DRC has globally significant reserves of cobalt and other critical minerals, including lithium, tantalum, and rare earth elements such as niobium and germanium, among others. The DRC is the world’s largest producer and exporter of cobalt and, as of mid-2023, the world’s second largest producer of copper. As of 2021, 15 of the 19 cobalt producing mines in the DRC are owned or in part financed by the People’s Republic of China (hereafter referred to as PRC ) based firms.

In 2016, one of the largest copper and cobalt mines in the world, Tenke Fungurume, and in 2020, the undeveloped Kisanfu concession were sold by a United States company to the PRC state-tied mining company CMOC (previously known as China Molybdenum Company Limited).