DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, NOVEMBER 2008
An FRDC (Congolese Army) soldier holds the sexual organs and hand of a dead CNDP (National Congress for People's Defense) soldier that he has amputated with a knife. The war in the East of the Congo is a conflict over the control and illegal exploitation of the minerals that hide in this region of the country. Coltan is a scarce and precious mineral. Democratic Republic of Congo owns 80% of the world reserves of this new 'black gold'. That mineral so coveted by the technology industry funds a bloodbath in the heart of Africa. More than 120 armed groups profit from the illegal extraction of coltan to buy weapons with which they commit mass massacres on civilian populations, indiscriminately rape women and girls and kidnap children to turn them into soldiers.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, NOVEMBER 2008
General Nkunda (C), the leader of the rebel CNDP (National Congress for People's Defense) group. The war in the East of the Congo is a conflict over the control and illegal exploitation of the minerals that hide in this region of the country. Coltan is a scarce and precious mineral. Democratic Republic of Congo owns 80% of the world reserves of this new 'black gold'. That mineral so coveted by the technology industry funds a bloodbath in the heart of Africa. More than 120 armed groups profit from the illegal extraction of coltan to buy weapons with which they commit mass massacres on civilian populations, indiscriminately rape women and girls and kidnap children to turn them into soldiers.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, NOVEMBER 2008: The boot of a dead FRDC (Congolese Army) soldier on the road between Kibati and Rusturu.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, NOVEMBER 2008: The body of a dead FRDC (Congolese Army) soldier. The war in the East of the Congo is a conflict over the control and illegal exploitation of the minerals that hide in this region of the country. Coltan is a scarce and precious mineral. Democratic Republic of Congo owns 80% of the world reserves of this new 'black gold'. That mineral so coveted by the technology industry funds a bloodbath in the heart of Africa. More than 120 armed groups profit from the illegal extraction of coltan to buy weapons with which they commit mass massacres on civilian populations, indiscriminately rape women and girls and kidnap children to turn them into soldiers.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, NOVEMBER 2008
A group of refugees fleeing the fighting
KIBATI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, NOVEMBER 2008
A refugee runs for shelter in the rain, in the Kibati refugee camp. The war in the East of the Congo is a conflict over the control and illegal exploitation of the minerals that hide in this region of the country. Coltan is a scarce and precious mineral. Democratic Republic of Congo owns 80% of the world reserves of this new 'black gold'. That mineral so coveted by the technology industry funds a bloodbath in the heart of Africa. More than 120 armed groups profit from the illegal extraction of coltan to buy weapons with which they commit mass massacres on civilian populations, indiscriminately rape women and girls and kidnap children to turn them into soldiers.
KIBATI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, NOVEMBER 2008: A wounded child rests inside the Kibati refugee camp. The war in the East of the Congo is a conflict over the control and illegal exploitation of the minerals that hide in this region of the country. Coltan is a scarce and precious mineral. Democratic Republic of Congo owns 80% of the world reserves of this new 'black gold'. That mineral so coveted by the technology industry funds a bloodbath in the heart of Africa. More than 120 armed groups profit from the illegal extraction of coltan to buy weapons with which they commit mass massacres on civilian populations, indiscriminately rape women and girls and kidnap children to turn them into soldiers.
KIWANYA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, NOVEMBER 2008
Refugees in Kiwanya refugee camp looks for safety near the MONUC camp.
KIBATI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, NOVEMBER 2008
A refugee runs for shelter in the rain, in the Kibati refugee camp.
GOMA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, NOVEMBER 2008
Inside the Goma hospital.
GOMA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, NOVEMBER 2008
A refugee mother and her daughter, who is a victim of cholera, in the emergency cholera unit of Goma hospital.
GOMA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, NOVEMBER 2008
Goma hospital.
KIBATI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, NOVEMBER 2008
FRDC (Congolese Army) soldiers on the frontline in Kibati.
KIBATI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, NOVEMBER 2008: FRDC (Congolese Army) soldiers on the frontline in Kibati.
KIWANJA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, NOVEMBER 2008
The bodies of executed civilians.
KIBATI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, NOVEMBER 2008: Refugees inside an old church in Kibati refugee camp.
KIBATI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, NOVEMBER 2008
Cholera victims in a hospital in Goma
KIBATI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, NOVEMBER 2008: Cholera victims in the field hospital set up in Kibati refugee camp
KIBATI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, NOVEMBER 2008: Cholera victims in the field hospital set up in Kibati refugee camp.
KIBATI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, NOVEMBER 2008: Refugees in Kibati refugee camp.
Any given day. War in Eastern RDC - Ongoing project
The current violence in the DRC has its origins in the massive refugee crisis and spillover from the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. After Hutu génocidaires fled to eastern DRC and formed armed groups, opposing Tutsi and other opportunistic rebel groups arose. The Congolese government was unable to control and defeat the various armed groups, some of which directly threatened populations in neighboring countries. From 1998 to 2003, government forces supported by Angola, Namibia, and Zimbabwe fought rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda, in what is now known as the Second Congo War. The death toll may have reached more than five million people (estimates vary greatly). Despite the signing of a peace deal and the formation of a transitional government in 2003, weak governance and institutions, along with corruption and an absence of the rule of law, have contributed to ongoing violence perpetrated by armed groups against civilians in the eastern region.
One of the most prominent rebel groups to emerge in the aftermath was known as the March 23 Movement (M23), made up primarily of ethnic Tutsis allegedly supported by the Rwandan government. M23 rebelled against the Congolese government for supposedly reneging on a prior peace deal signed in 2009. It was defeated by the Congolese army and UN peacekeepers in 2013 after it gained control of Goma, a resource-rich provincial capital in eastern DRC on the border with Rwanda and home to more than one million people. The UN Security Council authorized an offensive brigade under the mandate of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC to support the DRC state army in its fight against M23. Since M23’s defeat, other armed groups have emerged due to general lawlessness, chaos, and weak governance in eastern DRC. The country’s massive resource wealthóestimated to contain $24 trillion of untapped mineral resourcesóalso fuels violence. The mineral trade provides financial means for groups to operate and buy arms.
