War, plague and exploitation in DR Congo

Abstract

Late in autumn 2006 one of the headlines in world media was the first democratic elections in DR Congo. They took place after 30 years of Mobutu Sese Seko?s dictatorship and bloody civil wars in the period 1996-2002. These conflicts, which took approximately 4 million human lives, are called "The First African World War". Elections were held but they did not guarantee the end of trouble for the divided and tormented people in the northeast of Congo, the real scene of bloodshed. The area is still turbulent because it abounds in mineral wealth - gold, diamonds and raw materials for nuclear technology. For a whole decade, unscrupulous actors of the African crisis were fighting there, for illegal profits (achievable in the chaos of bloodshed) rather than for democracy, defense of tribal interests, security, etc. as they claimed. In the mines of Eastern Congo unprecedented exploitation of people is still going on, especially of children, victims of conflicts, who suffer in great numbers from violence, starvation and diseases. These slaves of the crisis make local "warlords" and their mentors rich. The looting of the mines has stabilized the crisis because it makes possible enormous accumulation of wealth among armed decision-makers - which also includes availability of countless slaves-miners who have lost everything except their bare lives. Eastern Congo is, however, one of world?s three old focuses of plague; wild exploitation of ores in the area of this endemic disease has activated a sleepy focus and added pneumonic plague to the burdens suffered by the population of the rich but ill-fated region. This was to be expected because endemic plague in the gold-bearing evil circumstances impedes safe mining - and this will be the crucial challenge in the future of Congo. This article is an anthropological outline of the area where gold, plague, weapons and incomparable suffering of people merge together just because of cynic greed producing abuse and death, including the plague.