How Mobile Phones Cause Conflict in the DRC | 10 Oct 2001

The Real Mobile Phone Wars - DRC, 10 October 2001

As the high tech age takes over more and more of our lives manufacturers will go to any lengths to get the sometimes scarce minerals that go into them. Tantalum is one such rare ingredient. Few of us know that in the middle of Africa much human suffering is created in the pursuit of it.

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Coltan is a valuable metal because it can be processed and manufactured into a component called a capacitor, which sits on the circuit board of mobile phone and other portable electronic devices. The Democratic Republic of Congo is the world's second biggest supplier of coltan (after Australia), supplying an estimated 18 per cent of the world market. The trouble with coltan from Congo is that it is fuelling the war there. Various rebel groups and militias are mining, stealing, taxing and/or smuggling coltan to raise funds for their war effort. A recent UN report has declared the trade in coltan from Congo illegal because the legitimate and internationally recognised Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo does not license it. Instead the trade of coltan is helping to destabilise that government. Our reporter, JULIANA RUHFUS, travels via Uganda across the Kasindi border crossing, to Congo, her quest to find the source of coltan. Her often dangerous journey takes her via coltan traders, miners and warlords including the Mayi Mayi.

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A report by Juliana Ruhfus for Unreported World. Produced by Mentorn. Ref. 1170
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