Howard W. French’s scientific contributions

... DRC were funding the military engagements of local and foreign-backed militias in the country. Beginning in 1996 as a spillover of the Rwandan genocide, the Congo Wars-also known as "Africa's World War"-combined civil conflict with regional and international geopolitics, resulting in the deaths and displacement of millions of Congolese (French, 2004;Prunier, 2009;Renton et al., 2007). The fluctuation of tantalum prices has been found to directly contribute to the increase and decrease of violence in the DRC, particularly its eastern regions of North and South Kivu where most of the tantalum ore is artisanally mined (Smith & Mantz, 2006). ...

Reference:

Responsibility boundaries and the governance of global value chains: The interplay of efficiency, ethical, and institutional pressures in global strategy