Violence and Conflict over Minerals Still Plague Eastern Congo

Apr 23, 2015 | Sarah Morrison
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For Darlène Ndango, fear builds at night. Just over two weeks ago, she was woken up in her bed by the sound of gunshots ripping through the air. Armed men had ambushed the cassiterite mine where she sold her merchandise in South Kivu, eastern Congo. Immediately, she fled.

“We were in bed at about 5 a.m. when we started to hear shots being fired. We got up and started to run,” she tells me. “During the flight, there were some that ran into the forest and there were others that actually ran into the mine pits. The assailants who came followed people right up to the entrance of the tunnels. They captured some men...they took everything they could find. Minerals, clothing and money.”

Ndango, a 37-year-old mother of six, had never encountered an armed attack at a mine site before. She had only begun making the journey to Lukoma mine in the last month to sell beer to miners and make much-needed money for her children.

But armed groups and members of the Congolese national army have preyed on eastern Congo’s mining sector, for more than 15 years. They have taxed and traded minerals, such as the cassiterite, a form of tin found in Lukoma, and tungsten, tantalum and gold, found in parts of eastern Congo, to help finance their operations. Conveniently, these four minerals are in global demand for consumer products, including mobile phones, laptops, jewellery and cars.

Violence at some mine sites in eastern DRC continues today. Ndango fell and hurt her leg before taking refuge from the armed men in a pit. Once she climbed out, she says she saw four miners that had been killed. One pregnant woman, her neighbour, was also reportedly found dead in bed. One eyewitness says a bullet went straight through her head.