The killing of a Swiss geologist and a local miner in the Central African Republic has brought a growing security problem in Central Africa into sharp focus. Mining areas are becoming targets, mineral transport routes are becoming security corridors, and governments are increasingly treating the protection of resource assets as part of national security.
The incident in late July near Gbango-Carriere, about 55 kilometers north of Bangui, involved the kidnapping and killing of Swiss geologist Luca Maggini and a local miner. A Central African Army staff sergeant was also abducted. Maggini worked for ADMOG Gold, an Emirati company operating in the country. The attackers have not been publicly identified, and authorities have not established a confirmed motive. The incident was not directly connected to developments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But the two cases illustrate the same structural shift. In April, the DRC announced plans to create a dedicated Mining Guard to protect mining sites and secure the movement of minerals from extraction areas to processing facilities and border points. The initial program is expected to cost about $100 million, with 2,500 to 3,000 personnel expected to become operational by December 2026 and the force eventually expanding to more than 20,000 personnel by 2028.
Mining is becoming a security issue
The change reflects the growing strategic value of Central Africa's mineral resources. The DRC supplies much of the world's cobalt and is also a major producer of copper, while other countries in the region possess significant deposits of gold, lithium and other minerals increasingly important to batteries, electric vehicles, renewable energy, and advanced technologies. As global competition for critical minerals intensifies, control over extraction sites and supply routes becomes more consequential. The DRC has itself raised the connection between critical minerals and security at the UN Security Council, arguing that growing demand for strategic resources can intensify instability in fragile regions. The security problem, however, is not simply that valuable deposits attract criminal activity. In areas where state institutions are weak, control over a mining site can provide armed groups with access to revenue, territory and influence.
From mines to armed-group financing
Eastern DRC provides the clearest example. Armed groups have long exploited the region's mineral economy through illegal taxation, control of mining areas and smuggling networks. The US Treasury has previously sanctioned individuals and entities involved in illicit mineral extraction and trade linked to armed-group activity around Rubaya, a major coltan-producing area in North Kivu. This creates a cycle that is difficult for governments to break. Armed groups seek control over territory because territory provides access to resources. Resource revenues help sustain armed groups, while insecurity makes it harder for governments to establish effective administration and regulation. The result is that a mining zone can become much more than an economic asset. It can become a source of financing, a logistical base and a strategic point of territorial control.
DRC is responding with a new security architecture
The planned Mining Guard represents a significant change in how Kinshasa approaches the problem. Rather than protecting individual mines through fragmented security arrangements, the proposed force is intended to cover the wider mineral chain, including extraction sites and the transportation of minerals toward processing facilities and border crossings.
That approach reflects a broader understanding of the problem. Securing a mine means little if minerals can be stolen or diverted after leaving the site. Likewise, stronger controls at a border cannot fully address illicit extraction upstream. The initiative also shows how economic security and national security are increasingly converging around critical minerals.
CAR shows why the challenge is wider
The Central African Republic faces a different security environment, but the underlying vulnerability is similar.
Mining takes place in a country where the state has historically struggled to maintain consistent control across remote areas. Armed groups remain active in parts of the country, while mining sites can be located far from the institutions capable of providing effective protection. The recent killing near Bangui demonstrates the human dimension of this problem. Mining personnel themselves can become targets when valuable resources are located in insecure areas. The risks are not limited to armed groups competing for territory; they can also involve criminal networks, illicit traders and other actors seeking access to resource wealth.
International competition adds another layer
The growing security focus around mining is also attracting international involvement.
Washington, Beijing, Gulf states and European governments all have interests in Central Africa's critical-mineral supply chains, although their approaches differ. The DRC's Mining Guard has been described as part of broader US and UAE efforts to strengthen mineral security, but the US embassy subsequently clarified that Washington was not directly financing the force. This distinction matters. International partners may help governments improve mineral traceability, infrastructure and security without directly controlling the security structures protecting those resources.
For Central African governments, however, the challenge is becoming more complex: they must secure strategic resources while ensuring that growing international interest does not deepen competition over territory and extraction rights.
Can mining security avoid militarization?
The creation of specialized security forces may help governments protect mines and transport routes, but force alone cannot resolve the wider problems surrounding the resource economy.
Corruption, weak local administration, informal mining, smuggling, poverty and disputes over land and mining rights can all undermine security. If these problems remain unresolved, armed groups and criminal networks can simply adapt to new security arrangements. Central Africa's mineral boom is therefore creating a new security equation. The more strategically important its resources become, the more mining areas resemble contested security spaces rather than isolated economic zones.
The challenge for governments will be to protect mineral supply chains without turning resource-rich territories into permanently militarized economies.
