January 28, 2025
From Conflict Minerals to Global Responsibility: Why Congo’s Crisis Matters to Us All
The long-standing humanitarian crisis and conflict in eastern Congo is a personal one for me. As a refugee from Goma, eastern Congo, I lost family members to this conflict. I am writing this piece to shed light on the worsening situation in the region, both as a Global Health Master of Public Health student and as someone who dreams of peace and a healthy community in my homeland. I ask you to keep learning, sharing, writing to your representatives about conflict mineral legislation, and taking action to end what is happening in eastern Congo.
The field of Global Health focuses on improving health equity and tackling the systemic factors that create disparities worldwide. In the context of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), this means understanding and addressing the root causes of displacement, violence, and exploitation while advocating for change. Yet this humanitarian crisis remains absent from global discussions. You might not have heard much about the DRC—its history or its present struggles—but it is vital to raise awareness about the ongoing suffering. The crisis in eastern Congo has persisted for decades, yet it often goes unnoticed. The situation in Goma, a city in eastern Congo, is particularly concerning. Since 1996, thousands of people have fled their homes and now live in displacement camps under precarious conditions. In the past decade alone, over 5.4 million people have died, and more than 120 million people have been displaced.
As someone born in the DRC and who fled to a refugee camp in Tanzania, I have witnessed firsthand the heartbreaking reality faced by millions of refugees from the DRC and neighboring countries like Burundi and Rwanda. Many people, including my parents, arrived at these camps thinking it would be a temporary stay, only to find themselves living there for years, sometimes decades. It is incredibly disheartening. No one deserves to live in such an environment.
The DRC’s history is a tale of hope turned tragedy. In 1960, the country celebrated a brief moment of optimism with the inauguration of its first democratically elected prime minister, Patrice Lumumba. Lumumba’s vision of self-determination and resource sovereignty for the Congolese people was cut short when foreign powers rejected his anti-colonial stance. His assassination paved the way for Joseph Mobutu’s dictatorship, which prioritized external interests over the welfare of the Congolese people.
Today, the suffering continues, particularly in the mining provinces. The DRC’s rich deposits of cobalt—essential for the batteries in smartphones, laptops, tablets, and electric vehicles—are extracted under exploitative conditions, including the use of child labor and inadequate compensation. Despite the minimum wage in the Congo being $2.49 per day, many mining workers earn only $2 daily, an ongoing example of modern slavery. Cities like Kolwezi are central to the global tech industry, yet they remain shrouded in obscurity. The supply chains of multinational corporations, including Google, Apple, and Samsung, rely on cobalt mining under inhumane and unethical conditions. Child labor is rampant, with children risking their lives in mines for wages that are insufficient to meet even their basic needs. This issue is not unique to the DRC but reflects a broader pattern of exploitation across many African countries, where the labor and lives of workers are undervalued.
The world remains largely unresponsive to these injustices. Non-governmental organizations, governments, and corporations fail to adequately address the crisis in the DRC, leaving children vulnerable to violence, hunger, and disease. With rebel groups abusing and raping vulnerable populations, people are forced to abandon their homes, their education, and their futures as they endure unimaginable hardship.
We must stay informed and act meaningfully to amplify the voices of the Congolese people. The history and ongoing challenges of the DRC are not merely local issues—they are global ones, intricately tied to our daily lives and the technologies we use. Whether the driving forces are neoliberalism, globalization, or a combination of both, it is our responsibility to ensure that the Congolese people are no longer ignored and that their struggles for justice, equity, and dignity are supported. Every human being deserves the dignity of a safe and stable home, not a place where they are constantly forced to overthink and worry about their survival and future.
Learn more about how you can support the efforts of a local organization working in eastern DRC: https://www.focuscongo.com/en/
Support Kingege’s business, Uwezo, that restores dignity and fosters self-reliance among refugees: https://www.uwezosoap.com/
