After the April 25th break, my travels, and May 1st, Matassa returns with the first free article of the month.

In DR Congo, a paramilitary guard is formed to protect the mines, a $100 million project that, beyond official denials, is part of the global competition for critical minerals between the United States, the United Arab Emirates, and China.

Coltan, cobalt, copper: essential materials for batteries, artificial intelligence, and energy transition. Their extraction takes place in territories marked by conflict and instability.

What emerges is a new model for managing violence, in which mines are made secure enough to keep the global supply chain active.

Security becomes infrastructure, traceability becomes control, and the technological supply chain, increasingly less invisible, also passes through here.