Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) – The recent news that in Nigeria some 200 people have died in recent months due to mining a gold mine, is in addition to a series of complaints about environmental damage and human costs caused in different African areas from exploitation of gold resources.
Fides has been sent a document from the “Network for Congo Peace," sponsored by the missionaries operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), expressing concern about the activities of a Canadian gold-mining company in South Kivu, in eastern DRC.
Having traced the history of how society is able to obtain a mining lease, the document contains some considerations on the consequences that the exploitation of gold will have on the local population.
"The territory of Mwenga is inhabited by two tribes: the Balega and Bashi," the document states. "The Bashi inhabit the area of Luhwinja and Burhinyi in the territory of Mwenga and the Kaziba and Ngweshe in the territory of Walungu. The density is approximately 80 inhabitants per km2. The population lives off of subsistence farming and livestock of cattle and goats. The territory is mountainous.
For the exploitation of gold, the company expropriates lands, the only source of livelihood for locals and/or transfers the population elsewhere. This is what has already been occurring in Twangiza, in the area of Luhwinja, in the territory of Mwenga. 850 families have been forced to abandon their lands.
Given that Bashi families are mainly an average of six people, there are more than 5,100 people implied. 450 artisanal miners live off this business and will lose their source of income. Most of them are former militiamen, demobilized soldiers, and other young people who made the gun there means for earning a living.
Exploitation of gold in South Kivu is not likely to have dire consequences for the people of this province? Residents and observers raise these questions and say they are worried.
Given the measures taken by people in Twangiza, the other populations are beginning to fear for their future, as they do not know where the expansion of this business will end up. Deprived of their only means of livelihood, the land, these people will not know how to live.
The inhabitants of the area fear being forced to live in groups that run the risk of becoming real concentration camps, where misery spreads and conflict arises that could destroy the social fabric of coexistence and sociability that so far characterized the people of Kivu.
The people are not awarded any right of priority in buying a land in which the presence of gold is found. In fact, they are even in danger of being hunted down.
The expulsion of artisanal miners from the mines and without any precaution of socio-economic reintegration, increases insecurity and crime, because these young people constitute a pool of recruitment for armed groups still active.
The population of Twangiza fears that with the depletion of deposits of gold, the company will transfer its facilities elsewhere, destroying the jobs secured by the mines.
There is fear for the damage to the environment and biodiversity. Gold mining procedures also use highly toxic substances such as cyanide. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 05/06/2010)
