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A man in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) recently set himself alight as a sacrifice to draw the world’s attention to what is currently happening in the DRC. The unidentified man stood in front of a crowd in Kinshasa, the capital of the country, holding a sign that read “Stop the genocide in Congo” before he set himself alight.
For the past 25 years, almost 10 million people in the DRC have died. Decade-old studies showed that at least 48 women were being raped every hour in the country, little suggests much had changed. Child labour is rife in the central African country and are exploited and forced to work for multinationals mining companies.
With more than 60% of the world’s cobalt found in Congo, the destabilised country is also rich in natural resources such as gold, coltan, and diamonds.
Cobalt is used by big technology companies to manufacture batteries for smartphones and electric cars. While the world benefits from the precious minerals of DRC, children are being exploited, the United Nations (UN) says “nearly 7 million people are now internally displaced within the Democratic Republic of Congo due to the escalating violence” according to BBC news Africa.
There is reason to believe that Western countries are providing financial and military aid to groups that destabilise regions with a lot of mineral reserves. The orchestrated chaos that has led to the genocide and violence, is allegedly funded by the US, the UK, France, and Israel! According to some reports, “while all eyes are on Gaza, Israel is helping to fuel another humanitarian crisis in the DRC and a brutal military siege.”
In a TikTok video, a female activist from Congo weeps claiming that it feels like the violence in the country is never going to end, “I feel like giving up, this has been going on for ages, we have campaigned for years, trying to raise awareness but it never ends. I have been fighting this since 2006 but we still find women being raped, children exploited, it never ends,” said the woman.
According to UNICEF, just over half of the 100 million population of DRC access clean water while roughly 80% of the population lives without electricity.
Just like Gaza, Congo is going through a genocide. Talking about it will help to raise awareness about this silent genocide and help save the Congolese women and children.
