Marcus Bleasdale

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has the potential to be one of the richest countries in Africa. It has immense mineral reserves, many of which are unique to the region; the land itself is highly fertile, giving the DRC the opportunity to be a significant exporter of food; and the Congo River is capable of providing sufficient hydroelectric power for all of southern Africa.

Yet, with a per capita gross domestic product of only $110 the country is the poorest in the region. Since the war began in 1998, the country has fallen 28 places in the UN Human Development Index to 168 out of 177. Over half of the 5 million people living in the DRC survive on less than $1 a day.

Until 2004, as many as seven nations were fighting within the DRC’s borders. The conflict, arguably the murkiest and deadliest on earth, has been in large part about natural resources. The war began in 1998, when military forces from Rwanda and government forces from Uganda crossed the border and began to vie for control of eastern DRC’s minerals. From these first months, resources helped define military strategy. Congolese rebels and Rwandan troops laid siege to mining towns for gold, diamonds, coltan (for laptops and mobile phones), and more recently cassiterite (used in making tin), among others. Soon,Ugandan government forces and other Congolese rebel forces did the same.

The looting and killing in the DRC has changed very little over the past centuries. The goods may be different, but the methods and motives remain the same. According to the International Crisis Group, 1,000 people die in the Democratic Republic of Congo every day, and approximately 4 million have died as a result of the war. For every person who is killed violently, 62 more, mostly women and children, die of completely avoidable causes: diarrhea, malnutrition, malaria, and cholera, to name a few.

An October 2002 report released by the UN named 85 multinational companies guilty of illegally exploiting the country’s natural resources. But years later, the activities that the UN panel expressed concern over continue, and so does the conflict, as stated in a recently released report from Human Rights Watch.

Mining causes irreparable damage to society. The villages are stripped of their agricultural basis, as most villagers choose to work in the mines rather than labor for low agricultural returns. Cholera, malaria, and hemorrhagic fever are regular occurrences in mining areas.

After successive waves of fighting and seven years of war, the people living in the mineral-rich mining towns of eastern Congo are some of the worst off. There are no hospitals, no roads, and no NGO or UN presence—it is simply too dangerous to work there. The inaccessibility of the mining zones and the reluctance of international agencies to operate in these areas allow devastating disease to spread to epidemic proportions.

Thousands, mostly children and women, die from a lack of health care and sanitation.

This fundamental breakdown of the social structure of African societies, fueled by the west’s desire for minerals and gems, is as damaging to human life as the fighting itself.

—Marcus Bleasdale, December 2005