30/01/2025
The £3.4 billion Church of England Pensions Board highlights risk of exposure to international supply chains from minerals from the conflict area.
The Church of England Pensions Board today launched an investor call to support the Goma Call for Peace issued by the Anglican Bishop of Goma, Rt Revd Martin Gordon. The intervention follows the capture of the city of Goma by Rwandan backed M23 rebels with the involvement of Rwandan troops.
Following an urgent briefing for international investors organised by the Board following the capture of the city, the pension fund will lead investor engagement with major international companies operating in Rwanda, seeking their support for the Goma Call for Peace and for those companies to engage the Rwandan government to engage in peace talks. The Board will also engage companies in key sectors with supply chains at risk of exposure to minerals from the conflict, a risk the Board has previously highlighted when warnings were issued by the US State Department in 2024.
The UN Security Council has condemned the escalation of violence and incursion into the sovereign territory of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the resulting loss of life, and growing humanitarian impact. With increasing risk of a regional conflict, the Board has backed the public call made by the Bishop of Goma which sets out five steps including an immediate ceasefire and a return to dialogue for peace between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"The Pensions Board supports the Goma Call for Peace and will be asking peers across the finance sector to join us in supporting a ceasefire and meaningful peace talks,” said Adam Matthews, the Board’s Chief Responsible Investment Officer, who visited Goma last year when coltan mines to the west of the city were captured by the M23 rebels. “It is clear from the UN reports that minerals from this region enter global supply chains and are directly sustaining this conflict. Investors are exposed through their holdings to companies that risk fuelling the conflict.
“In support of the Goma Call for Peace we will be contacting all companies we are invested in that have operations in Rwanda to seek their support for the call. We will also be encouraging companies to engage the Rwandan government to pull back their forces and those of the M23 rebels and return to peace talks.
“If investors do not act, we will see further risk of regional conflict, increasing loss of life and the continued tragic story of minerals sustaining conflict and human suffering when they could be supporting a very different path of economic and human flourishing.”
Mr Matthews was a member of the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals and Chairs the Global Investor Commission on Mining 2030.
The Goma Call for Peace from the Bishop of Goma for the international community to act immediately and decisively for peace in eastern DRC
With the escalation of the conflict in eastern DRC following Sunday’s incursion of Rwandan
troops into Congolese sovereign territory on the Goma/Rubavu border, and mindful of the
subsequent humanitarian and security risks in the region, the international community must
act now.
In solidarity with those suffering in Goma and across eastern DRC, we call for
1. The immediate and unconditional cessation of hostilities and respect of the existing
ceasefire agreement.
2. The protection of the civilian population and an urgent humanitarian response including
the restoration of power and water to the city.
3. The withdrawal of those external forces from DRC soil which are in clear violation of DRC’s territorial sovereignty. This includes the M23 and the Rwandan Defence Force.
4. A resumption of dialogue in good faith between Kigali and Kinshasa believing that
peaceful and diplomatic means are the only way to end the conflict which has already
caused untold suffering.
5. The international community to invest every effort and to consider using all possible
means to bring peace to eastern DRC.
People in the region want only peace.