Gold smuggled out of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), some of it from rebel-controlled areas, has been sold on the international market through Uganda and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the past year, according to a report published last month by the United Nations (UN).

The report, titled ‘Final Report of the Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo’ and based on a year’s research by the UN, found evidence that gold produced in mines controlled by rebel groups was sold to traders in Uganda.

Nonprofit organisation Global Witness states that the report documents that one of these traders officially exported the precious metal last year to Dubai, in the UAE, where gold from the DRC is sold “without any difficulty”.

“The UN report lifts the lid on the dirty mineral trade that helps prop up rebels in the DRC. It brings fresh, detailed evidence of individuals and companies that are profiting from the illegal trade. It is a scandal that the country’s mineral wealth continues to fund conflict more than a decade after hard evidence of this came to light,” says Global Witness resource campaigner Nathaniel Dyer.

Global Witness previously revealed major failures in Dubai’s regulation of the minerals sector, which subsequently increased the risk of money laundering and of ‘dirty’ gold from the DRC and other conflict zones entering the global supply chain in 2012.

The UAE has taken measures to correct the situation in the gold trade, but these “fall short” of what is needed, according to the UN report.

Dyer notes that, compared with tantalum, tin and tungsten from the DRC, there are no operational traceability or due diligence systems for the country’s gold sector.

“The UN report says that gold smuggled into Uganda in the past year included metal from mines controlled by rebel groups such as NDC, headed by Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka, who is wanted for crimes against humanity, and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, a group linked to Rwanda’s 1994 genocide,” he says.

Further the report says that coltan, a tantalum ore found in eastern DRC, is also smuggled into Rwanda, indicating flaws in responsible sourcing schemes. A UN investigation highlighted two cases of “suspected smuggling” – involving two Rwandan companies – of white coltan, which is produced only the DRC. The companies were suspended for six months from the supply chain initiative run by the International Tin Research Institute at the request of the Rwandan government.

“The US has legislation in place that requires US-listed companies to check that their purchases of metals have not funded warring parties, and the European Union is developing regulations on conflict minerals, although the current proposal is only for a voluntary scheme,” he concludes.