La Guerre Rwando-Congolaise : La Guerre Des Minerais

Abstract

This study examines the protracted conflict between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda through a combined and interdisciplinary lens of economic science and administrative studies, with a particular focus on the systematic exploitation and transnational trafficking of strategic mineral resources, notably coltan, cassiterite, wolframite, and gold. From an economic standpoint, the paper rigorously analyzes how resource asymmetric dependence, porous border control mechanisms, and fragmented governance structures collectively feed a transnational shadow economy that has progressively shifted the underlying motivations of warfare from political grievances and security concerns to rent-seeking maximization and profit accumulation. Administratively, the conflict highlights the profound collapse of public governance in the eastern provinces of the DRC, starkly contrasted with Rwanda's highly centralized, technocratic, and performance-oriented management system that has successfully channeled informal cross-border mineral flows into formal state revenues and national development frameworks. By systematically applying the theoretical frameworks of institutional economics, public administration theory, and state failure analysis, this paper demonstrates that the persistence and mutation of the war are deeply and structurally tied to the profitability of corporate and bureaucratic networks embedded within the regional mineral supply chain. The study concludes that classical diplomatic and peacekeeping frameworks remain fundamentally ineffective without simultaneous, thorough, and enforceable institutional and supply-chain reforms that address the root administrative and economic drivers of the conflict.