AFRICA/DEMOCRATIC CONGO - “A land blessed by God ruined by human greed”: a Congolese miner tells how his country is robbed of its mineral resources

Kinshasa (Fides Service)- “When He created the earth, the Lord gave Congo a large quality of different minerals, diamonds, copper, gold, uranium, coltan, cassiterite, as well as others still to be extracted like gas and oil” says a citizen of the Democratic Republic of Congo speaking of the hard life of a miner in his country. The story was sent to Fides by local missionaries.
We give some excerpts at a time when a scandal over reported illegal sales of uranium from Congo’s mines has lifted the veil which covered the forgotten reality of this vast country.
Miners equipped only with spades and pick axes dig for months to find a tiny amount of the mineral. In the meantime they live on basic food supplies sold at the local shops and the shopkeeper wants to be paid in minerals. But sometimes unsuccessful miners are so in debt they have to move from one mine area to another to escape creditors. Working conditions are terrible and many miners are killed in sudden collapses. But the worst lot is that of children forced to work in mines and often victims of sexual abuse on the part of the adult workers.
The traders who buy the minerals from the miners are also exploited. When they sell their stock of minerals, often after months in the forest, they find international prices have fallen. They are forced to sell to the owners of what are called “comptoires” , warehouses which buy and resell minerals. The shopkeepers who have also contracted debts with comptoires have to pawn their homes. In these warehouses underpaid staff comes into contact with all kinds of minerals some of which are toxic and radioactive, with serious consequences for their health. However in turn their bosses are at the mercy of Western importers, who can condition the prices of most minerals extracted in Congo.
“So, from miner to shopkeeper, from shopkeeper to exporter, the Congolese never benefit from the minerals with which the Creator endowed our country. On the contrary minerals are the root of the suffering and poverty of our people” the testimony concludes, recalling the many wars in DRC, with the objective to lay hands on the wealth of this immense treasury of minerals. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 14/3/2007 righe 36 parole 467)