Je remercie la République démocratique du Congo pour le leadership dont elle fait preuve sur cette importante question qui nous réunit aujourd’hui.

Partout dans le monde, le contrôle et l’exploitation des ressources naturelles redessinent profondément les conflits – leurs causes, leur déroulement, et leur issue.

Les minéraux critiques, tels que le lithium, le cobalt, le nickel et métaux rares y compris les terres rares, revêtent une importance stratégique croissante.

L’essor de la demande mondiale ouvre des perspectives essentielles pour le développement des pays producteurs.

Mais il intensifie aussi les rivalités géopolitiques, met sous tension des chaînes d’approvisionnement très concentrées et attise les conflits, avec de lourdes conséquences humanitaires.

Trop souvent, les revenus issus de l’exploitation illicite des ressources naturelles éloignent toute perspective de paix.

Ils renforcent les groupes armés et les réseaux criminels. Ils relient les violences locales à des réseaux régionaux et internationaux. Et ils sapent les perspectives de compromis politique.

Nous le voyons dans l’est de la République démocratique du Congo, où les groupes armés profitent de l’exploitation minière illégale et de la contrebande de minerais, tandis que les populations civiles continuent de payer le prix du conflit, comme l’ont montré les rapports successifs du Groupe d’experts mandaté par ce Conseil.

Nous le constatons également au Soudan, où la lutte acharnée pour le pouvoir et le contrôle du territoire est alimentée par l’exploitation des ressources naturelles, en particulier de l’or et de la gomme arabique, entraînant des atrocités et le déplacement de millions de personnes.

Partout, le fardeau le plus lourd pèse sur les plus vulnérables : les femmes et les enfants, ainsi que les communautés chassées des terres qui recèlent ces richesses.

C’est pourquoi le débat public d’aujourd’hui est particulièrement opportun.

Madame la Présidente,

Le Conseil de sécurité reconnaît depuis longtemps que le commerce et l’exploitation illicites des ressources naturelles jouent un rôle majeur dans le financement des groupes armés, l’alimentation des conflits et l’aggravation des crises humanitaires.

Et vous avez pris des mesures pour tarir ces flux.

En confiant pour mandat aux opérations de paix concernées des Nations Unies d’aider les autorités nationales à lutter contre l’exploitation illicite menée par les groupes armés ;

En appelant à une plus grande responsabilité des acteurs régionaux et internationaux ;

Et en adoptant des régimes de sanctions – notamment concernant la République démocratique du Congo, la Libye, et Al-Shabaab – pour endiguer le commerce illicite des ressources naturelles et d’empêcher que les revenus qui en sont tirés n’alimentent la violence.

Je salue le travail des panels et groupe d’experts qui vous appuient dans ces efforts :

En documentant les violations. En retraçant les chaînes d’approvisionnement. Et en identifiant les réseaux commerciaux et financiers dont les acteurs armés se servent pour générer des revenus.

Ces connaissances doivent guider notre recherche de solutions.

Excellencies,

Looking ahead, I see four urgent priorities:

First – justice.

We must ensure mineral development delivers fair and sustainable outcomes for resource-endowed countries and communities.

It is time to break the age-old pattern – where resources are extracted, value is captured elsewhere, and impoverished communities are left behind to cope with the environmental and socioeconomic damage.

And it is time to close the gap between a State’s recognized sovereignty over its natural resources, and its sovereign rights in practice.

Nowhere is this sovereignty deficit wider than in Africa, where the enduring consequences of colonialism, coupled with governance challenges, put States at a steep disadvantage when seeking to capture or reinvest the value that lies in their natural resources.

The UN Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals shows some of the ways we can shift this dynamic:

Through responsible investing.  Fair value chains.  In-country processing and manufacturing. Transparency.  Environmental and human rights standards.  And meaningful benefits for affected communities.

Countries and communities must benefit – first and most – from the resources in their own backyard.

That is why the United Nations is supporting national authorities to strengthen governance and institutions, improve regulatory frameworks, and ensure minerals contribute to development and peacebuilding.

We are supporting efforts to strengthen national capacity to negotiate equitable mining agreements, expand domestic processing and refining, manage public revenues, and mitigate adverse social and environmental impacts.

The UN Environment Programme and the UN Economic Commission for Africa are helping advance these efforts in the DRC, Mozambique, Uganda, and Zambia with financing from the Joint SDG Fund.

Second – prevention.

We must curb illicit flows and strengthen transparency across mineral supply chains.

Natural resources are often extracted in one country, transported through another, processed elsewhere, and ultimately sold on global markets.

Effective action must address the full value chain – not just the point of extraction.

Cooperation among producing, transit, and consuming States is vital in closing regulatory and enforcement gaps.

International and regional organizations, financial institutions, and industry all have an important role to play – as seen in last week’s announcement that the European Union will ban the purchase, import, and transfer of gold from Sudan, and to ban exports to Sudan of mercury and cyanide that feed its extraction.

Together, they can help prevent illicitly sourced resources from entering legitimate markets – through enforceable legal frameworks and stronger traceability, due diligence, and information-sharing.

At the same time, we need stronger regional cooperation to narrow the gaps between national systems that armed groups and criminal networks exploit.

Third – peaceful settlement of disputes.

We must make greater use of the tools outlined in Chapter VI of the Charter – which I will discuss here in greater detail tomorrow – including when disputes over natural resources affect the prospects for peace.

Questions of access, ownership, territorial control, revenue-sharing, and local benefits are often political issues, not merely technical ones.

Where they materially shape the interests of the parties or the viability of an agreement, they should inform political analysis and peaceful means of settling disputes, including good offices and mediation.

This can help identify workable arrangements, address incentives for continued conflict, and create areas of cooperation in support of a wider political settlement.

And fourth – climate.

We must ensure that preventive and political efforts take climate analysis into account.

Drought, flooding, environmental degradation, and ecosystem loss often reduce access to land, water, and minerals.

And when that happens, the ripple effects can cut off livelihoods, strain institutions, heighten tensions, and even spark violence.

That is why we are supporting national and regional partners in identifying where environmental pressures, displacement, and competition over natural resources may compound existing grievances – and where early engagement could help prevent escalation.

The UN Regional Office for Central Africa, for example, is integrating climate, peace, and security analysis into early warning and planning in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, and the DRC.

And in Abyei, UNEP, the Office of the Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, and UNISFA are supporting locally led peacebuilding in a context where environmental degradation and climate-related pressures compound protracted political tensions.

Engagement around the management of shared natural resources has created

practical entry points for dialogue, cooperation, and confidence-building.

Madam President,

The challenge is to transform the way natural resources are extracted, processed, brought to market, and put to use – guaranteeing that much more added value is retained by producing countries and affected communities.

No more exploitation.  No more plundering.

And we must deny armed groups and criminal networks the revenues that fuel protracted conflicts.

If we fail to act, the illicit exploitation of natural resources will continue to drive inequality, instability, and violence.

Instead, they must be managed in ways that help finance inclusive and sustainable development, strengthen institutions, and advance peace and prosperity for all.

Ultimately, this is a political choice.

And I urge you, as members of this Council, to choose peace.

Thank you.