Morning Edition · Sunday, June 14, 2026

Congo Presses Belgium to Open Colonial-Era Files on Its Mineral Wealth

Kinshasa wants access to millions of archived documents as it asserts greater control over the resources at the center of the global energy transition.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is demanding access to millions of colonial-era documents held in Belgium, citing reporting by the Financial Times. The country's mining minister, Louis Watum Kabamba, met Belgian and European officials to seek the records, which Kinshasa says could clarify the history and ownership of its vast mineral deposits.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo holds enormous reserves of cobalt and copper, metals central to batteries and electrification, and the push for the archives is part of a broader effort by resource-rich states to renegotiate the terms set during the colonial period. Belgium, the former colonial power, faces pressure to confront that history while European governments compete with China for access to critical minerals.

The dispute connects a long-running reckoning over colonial extraction to a present-day contest for the inputs of the energy transition, in which the Democratic Republic of the Congo is seeking both recognition and leverage.

What this means

Control over cobalt and copper is a strategic question for the energy transition, and producer states are increasingly using history and sovereignty to bargain for better terms. How Belgium and the European Union respond will signal whether Western buyers can secure supply on terms that satisfy resource-rich governments now courted by China.

What to watch

Whether Belgium agrees to release the colonial archives and on what conditions
New mining or supply agreements between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and either Western or Chinese partners

Observations to monitor, not financial advice.

1 source

Source: Kommersant