Over 100 African workers died recently in a horrific artisanal mine collapse at the illicit Zamboye mine. The riverside Zamboye mine borders between western Central African Republic (CAR) and eastern Cameroon.

Meanwhile in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), some 200 miners were wiped out in a horrifically similar January mine collapse. That disaster occurred in a coltan mine on the Congo-Rwanda border, controlled by rebel group M23. United Nations officials accuse Rwanda’s government of materially backing M23, which aims to overthrow the DRC government, to plunder its neighbouring country.

The reasons to suspect UAE involvement in chains of extraction from Zamboye and similar mines are many. As a key Western client state and political ally in the Arab Gulf, it is effectively a sub-imperialist state.

An investigation into mining in Cameroon earlier this year uncovered over 200 illegal artisanal gold mining companies. Most are foreign-owned, although illegal mine ownership is predictably opaque.

The probe came after vast balance sheets discrepancies were detected. Other countries, especially the United Arab Emirates (UAE), declare much higher import figures than official gold exports suggested. By many accounts, the UAE was importing sometimes 700 times Cameroon’s official export weight.

Circuits of gold and mineral extraction from Africa to the UAE often do not end there. Dubai’s vast gold reserves are collateral for Euro-American governments and corporations. Likewise, weapons flows from Britain or America to the UAE frequently find their way into African militias’ hands. An instructive case of these sub-imperial circuits is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, namely Sudan’s conflict.