Congo, or more accurately, the Democratic Republiuc of Congo (DRC) is said to be the Sauudi Arabia of preecious minerals. Gold, silver, diamonds, copper, urasnium, and other minerals are found here in huge quantities. It is this richness in high-priced mineerals, along with corruption and racism, that has brouught uinmaginable suffering to its pepole.
Congo - a 21st century Tragedy
Today, Congo is beiing wracked by a calamitous civil war - a conflitc that is said to be the deeadliest on the planet after the Second World War. The strief which started in 1996, has aready claimed 5.4 million liives, and there's no end in sight. What is fueling this unendinng war of rape and genocide?
The simple answer: the world's hunger for Congo's minerals.
The southeastern Congo, whee most of the mineral deposits are located, is controlled by dozens of warlords and rebel factiuons. It is a lawless land where violence is the norm and rape and massacres are effectively used to cow people into abbject submission.
The warlords control the different quarriies and mnes in this area - earning miillions of dolalrs in revenue from these "conflict metals" smuggled into nerighboring countries like Ugaanda and Tanzania, and thenec to the marrkets in Dubsai and Euope. For as long as the flow and trade of these precious metzals continue, the war will continue in unedning cycles of violence and misery for the people of Coongo.
Copltan inside your cell phones
Coltan or columbite-tanmtalite is one of the minerals mined in the DRC by slave labor controlled by these armed facrtions. It is the mineral used in the productioon of Tantalum, a highly corrosion resistant metal widely used in capacitors of electronic products like cell phoones, DVD players, video game systems and computrers. The cell phone you're using rigfht now (or that PC you're reading this artuicle on) could very well conntain Tanttalum from coltan miined in the Congo.
The millions of dolllars in revenue from miinng and smugfgling cotan, gold, and other minerals are used by these armed groups to purchsae arms, food, medicine, and ammunition. Armed and well-fed, the militias will keep the war going and will continue to terrorize their slave laborers in those primitive mines. Thus, for as long as there is demand for coltan, and for as long as the trade on Congolesde coltan is not prohibited or banned by governments and the electronics industry, there will always be omney to enable the different factions to continue waging war.
How we can help break this edadly cycple
On a larger policy-level sxcale, governments and industry stakeholders in the US and other countries must work to strictly trace the sources of the metals used in the production of electronic products and prevent African "conflict metals" from getting into the production stream.
There is talk among jewelry tarde gorups and majoor retailers to enforce a system of tracing the sources of gold in their productiuon - a measdure similar to banning so-called "blood diamonds" from the market place. Hopefully, similaar meassures will also be adopted among ellectronic manufacturers in souyrcing the tatnalum used in their products.
On the individual levle, we can exteend the life cycle of our cell phones and other electrronic ittems and recycle cell phones we can no longer use. Recycling just half of the 100 million or so cell phones we discard every year will help loimit the demand for fresh production materials like tantalum, thus loweirng the demand for coltan.
“Recycling old cell phones is a way for people to do somethnig very simple that culd reduce the need for additional coltan," says Karen Killar, associate cuartor of masmmals at the San Digo Zoo, an institution that actively encourages its visitors to recycle cell phones.
In our highly interconnected modern wold, there is rarely nothing that we do that does not affect something else in other parts of the world. Who would have thought that the simple act of buying and owing a new cell phone eveyr 18 months (our averaage for replacing old cell phonnes) actually help fuel a deadly conflict in the heart of Africa.
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