What’s There and Why Should You Care?
Massive rainforests. Two of the largest lakes in Africa. Immense biodiversity. Huge mineral wealth that if properly harnessed can raise the living standards of millions.
DRC (”Congo”) is important to the world. Home to the second largest rainforest on the planet, it absorbs 20% of the world’s carbon dioxide, providing you with much of the oxygen you breathe. Its forests house important species of primates and mammals, including mountain gorillas, forest elephants, and the okapi, unique to the region. 
Eastern Congo holds two of the largest lakes in Africa, Tanganyika and Kivu, and vast mineral resources, including coltan, tin and gold. So long as conflict in the East and a weak central government persist, threats to these resources will continue.
Eastern Congo’s massive mineral resources are being pillaged by rogue militia groups. Yet if mining were fully regulated, with taxes and royalties reinvested in infrastructure and development, both DRC and the Central African region would have a wealth rivalling anywhere in the world, to benefit their peoples. The potential is clear. History shows that raised socioeconomic status in a region lifts the position and power of women and reduces conflict, resulting in improved conditions for all.
What’s Wrong?
Conflict and greed. Sexual atrocities of unimaginable barbarity. Complacency. Lack of security and regulatory oversight. No power in the hands of the people.
Eastern Congo is the worst conflict you’ve never heard of. Ongoing since 1994’s end of ethnic conflict in Rwanda, Hutus who perpetrated the Rwandan genocide escaped into Congo. They have since terrorized the Congolese to gain control of territory and resources.
Militia groups from neighboring Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, and even Congo itself, have since joined the rampage. Little protection has been seen from the central Congolese government, based in Kinshasa over 1500 km west with no roads between. Official army resistance has been made, but without resolution. Over 5 million people are estimated to have died in the past decade in the region's conflicts, the greatest death toll since WWII. Women and girls, even some men, have suffered inconceivable sexual atrocities by the hundreds of thousands. Congo has been hailed “hell on earth for women”. It would appear the goal is to terrorize, so the rampant pillaging of resources can continue unresisted.
Mining operates in an environment of few rules. Government representatives live safely in Kinshasa, far away. Without opposition, rogue militias rape and pillage with impunity. Little legal prosecution occurs. As long as the rest of the world pays no attention, neither foreign nor local governments have cause to intervene – they and their corporations benefit from low regulation and no obligation to take action. The people have no power to demand protection, to call for accountabiltiy.
What’s Needed?
Awareness. Your voice. A call on the international community to care. Demand for our corporations to take responsibility in the regions where they operate. Us, empowering our neighbors in Congo to be as empowered as we so fortunately are.
We in the west benefit from the tin, coltan and other minerals mined from Congo. We benefit from the environmental contribution Congo basin rainforests contribute to our welfare. We benefit from the peaceful and prosperous survival of those living elsewhere in the world. In an age in which knowledge is instantaneous and events 5000 miles away are as impactful as those next door, we cannot pretend there is no connection among us.
Change starts with civil empowerment. People need tools to call for their government’s accountability and responsiveness. We can provide resources to the Congolese to effect change from within. We can shine a light on the region so abusers can no longer hide. The world will be watching and demanding change. And you have the opportunity to help make this happen.
Why did I care?
I could not sleep after reading what happens daily to women and girls in Eastern Congo. Tied to trees for months to serve as raping vehicles for groups of militia. Cigarette burns all over bodies used as ashtrays. Children and babies raped multiple times. Guns shot through the vagina. Most dying of massive infection, the survivors wishing they were dead. The events defy imagination.
Unthinkable atrocities have been documented, including cannibalism, severed body parts, torture and rape with tools and weapons, sexual slavery, and sexual assault of those as young as 10 months and as old as 87 years. To add insult, those who manage to live through this are ostracized by their communities.
Hundreds of thousands have suffered such atrocities the past 15 years. And it continues now as you read this. Amazingly, in this incredible darkness stands the light of those like Alfonsine, who endured 7 operations to repair her mutilated body, and emerged with a vision:
“I can do something for my people. Women must lead our country. They know the way.”
This vision surpasses what most could hope for in a lifetime – through inconceivable suffering, living in an world with no police, no army protection, not one shred of safety, she nonetheless offers: “I can do something for my people”.
It is impossible to respect our own humanity without acting in the face of this. Alfonsine deserves the resources we can offer to support leadership for change, and the leadership of others like her. You can be the source of their power. Click the “About You” tab to find out how.
For more information:
http://www.crisisgroup.be/flash/drc_nov08/drc_nov08.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/1076399.stm
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=1174&l=1
http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/privacy
