Cobalt and other metals from the Congo are stuck in phones and cars in the world. The miners in the Katanga province still live in abject poverty – and even your life on the game. Kossivi Tiassou was spot on.
Miners in the Congo (archive image)
Kipushi, a small town in the Southeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Region was once the backbone of the Congolese economy. It still mined Gold, copper, zinc and cobalt. For decades, the state mining company become gécamines, the operation of the mines here, but it is hard to beat and the city has swept a long time back.
The seven-year-old Paulin sits next to his mother Prisca in an open-pit, which starts close to the city centre and over dozens of acres. Prisca hitting the stones, in the hope of finding therein, cobalt. Mother and son are covered in dust. The stones, the dust, the scorching sun and the harsh tone of the miners – the Paulins world. His mother wants nothing more than him in the school. “Life is hard, since become gécamines is on the ground. We need to make this work, to pay our children to the school,” says Prisca. The work is tedious, on good days, it brings some 5,000 Congolese Francs to go home – the equivalent of about three euros. The rule the not but. “Not every day I manage to sell something,” she complains.
In Kipushi, many people live from mining
Paulin’s younger brother Jeannot comes out of a tunnel. He carries a bag. Therein Sand, mixed with blackish stones – believed to be cobalt. Priscas children accompany their mother every day at dawn, here, in the hope to find the valuable minerals. None of the children goes to school. Their stories are similar to those of Thousands of other children or families working in the mines of the Region.
Pale memories of better times
Become gécamines, the former giant of the Congolese mining industry, has been fighting for more than fifteen years of Survival. Various governments have plundered the group-literally. Only rarely are the profits were invested in the preservation of the mines. A majority of them today is in the hands of foreign corporations – not so in Kipushi. Here is today mined only by Hand. It is the law of the strongest prevails.
Once the company was the largest employer in the mining province of Katanga. More than 33,000 people work for become gécamines, many of them in Kipushi. “It was a town with houses, which all belonged to the become gécamines, with recreation centers, sports facilities, schools and hospitals,” recalls the activist and entrepreneur Alain Mwambenu of his Childhood. “I didn’t even know you could pay for the school. My father got us all free, to the toilet paper.” But today, they are all just memories.
The work in the mine of Kipushi is hard
“Everything is dead”
Today, only pale memories of the good times remain. Her husband has lost Prisca a long time ago. Also, she’s sick, she says. “If I went to the doctor today, they wouldn’t send me because of my urinary tract infection home. In the hospital they said I should not work here. But I have no choice.” Many people would try, the diseases with antibiotics to prevent. The mothers bring sick or stillborn children.
“It is a tragedy. We earn almost nothing. Due to the collapse of become gécamines, we work with our women and children in the mines. Each week, we buried relatives and former Workers of become gécamines,” complains another worker. Without the necessary equipment to be delivered diseases vulnerable, says the worker. But the Alternatives don’t give. “If we don’t, we will starve to death. Everything died here, due to become gécamines.”
What few people know is here: testing of samples of metals from Kipushi to have brought traces of uranium light – a radioactive substance, which the workers are at the mercy of a surface mine probably vulnerable all day, every day.
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Congo: the price of The cobalt greedThe poison desert of Kipushi
Near the city of Kipushi in the South of the Congo, an artificial desert. Until the nineties there was a Mine. Several square kilometers of land are contaminated for decades, nothing grows there. Also, the river is poisoned. Doctors report frequent cases of malformations in the newborn.
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Congo: the price of The cobalt greedMalformations and stillbirths
In the local hospitals for children with malformations such as hare always come back to nicks, and club feet. In Charles Lwanga hospital in Kipushi, it was only in March, three cases of Anencephalie: The fetuses developed no brain, they usually die right after birth. “Something’s not right here. But we have no money for research,” says gynecologist Dr. Alain.
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Congo: the price of The cobalt greedResearch against the suffering
An interdisciplinary research group of the Congolese, University of Lubumbashi is working together with the University of Leuven in Belgium on a research project on the relationship between the cobalt promotion and health damage. “We need to educate people about what is happening here. The toxins make us sick,” says Tony Kayembe, member of the research group.
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Congo: the price of The cobalt greedPreterm births by cobalt?
Two, premature Babies lie in an incubator in the St. Charles Lwanga hospital in Kipushi. “We suspect that the high number of premature births in this Region of the contamination, to do by metals like cobalt,” says Tony Kayembe, researchers at the University of Lubumbashi and a member of the international research group. The majority of the inhabitants Kipushis working in the cobalt mines.
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Congo: the price of The cobalt greedThe sick children of the family Masengo
Adele Masengo with their five children. Her husband works in a cobalt mine. Their oldest daughter went blind at the age of 12. Masengo had a miscarriage, a Baby born with deformities and died shortly after birth. If the mining industry is responsible for this, don’t know you. “When my babies were born, it has taken blood, but we never got the results,” says Adele.
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Congo: the price of The cobalt greedCobalt demand is increasing rapidly
A mine worker holds cobalt in the hands. 60% of the world’s production comes from the Congo. The rare metal is used for lithium batteries in Smartphones, Laptops, and electric cars. Due to the rapidly increasing demand, prices have doubled in the last two years, tripled. Children, women and men working in the mines, are exposed to various toxins.
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Congo: the price of The cobalt greedCongo’s Copper Belt
GECAMINES is the largest mining company in the Congo. It has its headquarters in Lubumbashi, the second largest city in the country. It is located in the so-called “copper belt”. Here, on the border with Zambia, many large international corporations are located. 5000 tonnes of cobalt will be produced annually. The large mountain in the middle of the city consists of mine waste.
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Congo: the price of The cobalt greedToxic Water
Workers look for in a contaminated river to cobalt and other substances. For many, it is the only source of income. “We use our water here,” says a local resident. “It leaves a strange Film on our skin. If I wash my Laundry with the water, then disintegrates after that. Even our potatoes, we pour the water, taste funny.”
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Congo: the price of The cobalt greedLiving next to the refinery
Right next to the company “Congo Dongfang Mining“ (CDM) is a residential area. The Chinese company is one of the largest cobalt-buyers in the Congo. When it rains, running water from the CDM-ore refinery in Lubumbashi in the district of Kasapa in the next room. The residents complain of severe skin and respiratory problems. To your requests in CDM, they received no feedback.
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Congo: the price of The cobalt greedThere is no protection against the poison
A dermatologist examines a patient at the University hospital of Lubumbashi. Most of the miners in the Congo, working without protective clothing. In addition to metals such as cobalt, copper and Nickel, even uranium is in the Rocks frequently. Also, the residents are exposed to the dust unprotected. The Research was supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation.