POISONED APPLE? TIM COOK AND PAUL KAGAME

In this clip, @tatiana_giraud (Instagram) - founder of TG Foundation, a charity helping Congolese survivors of rape - draws attention to possible links between Rwanda's president Paul Kagame and Apple CEO, Tim Cook. Both Kigali and the multi-billion-dollar tech corporation benefit from illegally-obtained minerals from the resource war in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s east.

Apple has faced legal action over its alleged dependence on conflict minerals, which are used to power its devices - while mounting evidence shows that Rwanda acquires smuggled Congolese resources (often extracted via coerced or child labour), which it then sells to international players on the global market.

According to the UN, Kigali funds, trains and directs proxies in eastern DRC, such as the M23 rebels, which have seized a number of lucrative mines in the region. The UN also says thousands of Rwandan soldiers are active combatants in east DRC’s war.

The UN has apparently known about Kigali's involvement in the destruction of Congo since as far back as 2010. In a leaked 600-page investigative report, its experts spoke of a possible genocide in the Congo. At the time, the targets were primarily Hutus who had fled to Congo after the 1994 genocide committed against Rwandan Tutsis: Rwandan forces followed them into the Congo - and, with local allies, allegedly committed numerous atrocities, including massacring hundreds of men, women and children at a time with hoes and axes.

In 2012, another leaked UN report found that there was strong evidence that Rwanda had been behind the creation of the M23 militia.

Nevertheless, in 2013, despite the alarms raised by its own experts, the UN invited Rwanda's president Paul Kagame to a special dinner - to present Apple boss Tim Cook with an ‘International Quality of Life Award.’ @tatiana_giraud was taken aback when she learned this, and explains here why she smells a rat.

Sources:

https://media.un.org/photo/en/asset/oun7/oun7274712

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/20/why-has-drc-filed-criminal-charges-against-apple-over-conflict-minerals

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-18612612

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/aug/26/un-report-rwanda-congo-hutus

https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/violence-democratic-republic-congo