The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the richest country in the world, yet one of the poorest. The DR Congo has about 75% of cobalt in the world used essentially for batteries, and its rich and large land contains a lot more minerals, like Coltan which is essential to create any kind of electronic device, mostly cell-phones and computers. While these devices are very helpful for people all over the world for communication and education, specially in schools where these devices can be used to teach kids different topics as is used in Taylorsville High School. There are many questions about where these resources to make electronics come from. DRC not only has coltan and cobalt but also other minerals like diamonds, gold, and lithium. The country also has the second-largest rainforest in the world, the Congo basin. DR Congo is extremely rich but has been heavily impacted by colonization and external powers. Till this day the territory faces another war, more specifically in the East of the Congo, that has left thousands of refugees, victims of sexual violence, and death.
The DRC has a long and complicated history, being heavily impacted by colonization and external powers. During the 15th century countries in Europe started colonizing different places with the purpose of getting more resources. This happened in a lot of places in the world including Africa. During this period of time, there was a pattern that is seen in the history of lots of countries that was pitting one group against the other.
Phillip Hare says, “one group was favored by the colonial powers and often didn’t treat the other group as well. So once independence comes, there’s a lot of conflict created there.”,this method of division would end up affecting the continent.
During the 19th century, the interest in the DRC and in the control of Africa in general would increase thanks to the industrial revolution, as they required a bunch of riches. In the Berlin Conference, European powers divided Africa between themselves, with the DRC ending up in the hands of Belgium. This period would be full of exploitation of the Congolese people until their independence in 1960.
After their independence, the DRC had some struggles itself with its first prime minister, Patrice Lumumba. Assassination and conflicts in the following years, the presidency would fall over Joseph-Desire Mobutu, the second president of the DRC, whose rule would end up in a dictatorship.
In 1994, the aftermath of the traces left by colonization would show up with the neighbouring country of Rwanda. During the Tutsi genocide, where Hutu extremists would use extreme violence against the Tutsi, who some lived in DR Congo. This genocide ended the same year when a Tutsi-led rebel group took control of the capital Kigali, and came to power.
As aftermath of the genocide both groups left to refugee camps the hutu’s on their side left to the DRC but among them were some extremist hutu’s who had been part of the genocide and this people starting raising the extremist ideologies in the east of the country, Rwanda’s goverment did not see this as something good and so in 1996 Rwanda invaded Congo leading to the ‘First Congo War” which would end up with Mobutu out of power and the raise of laurent-Desire Kabila as president but problems on his government would caused the Second Congo War starting in 1998 the war finally ended in 2003 with the Lusaka Agreement this ceasefire was supposed to give peace but in the east of the country this did not happened at all.
During the following years of the war, Eastern Congo was still not at peace as different Tutsi rebel groups were raised, as well as other armed groups. The M23 is one of the main armed groups; this one has been accused multiple times by the UN and other experts of being backed by the country of Rwanda, as there are registers of Rwanda’s military (RDF) fighting alongside the armed groups. Other accusations tie the government of Rwanda to the weapons M23 has. The group was formed in 2012 by members of another armed group, called CNDP. M23 operated for a time until 2013, disappearing from the public eye until 2022. Since then, they’ve been gaining more territory, capturing Goma and Bukavu, which are very important cities in eastern Congo.
Apart from the M23, there are also other armed groups like the ADF, CODECO, Zaire-FPAC, FDLR, Mai Mai militias, and more. According to the Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect in Eastern Congo, there are about 120 armed groups.
Phillip Hare says, “This causes conflict itself to fall in that conflict, like M23 and some others, they want control of some other resources. There is not one group that has been able to have full control, and before one of those groups is fully in control, you’re just gonna have constant conflict, and the civilians end up getting on the way.”
The Congolese own military is controlled from Kinshasa, DRC capital’s city which is far away from the east. Geographically this fact makes it harder for the government to control what is happening in the east.
As to why these groups do this, the M23 as example, claims that their actions have to do with self-defense from attacks against them;other groups also claim the same narrative. Other figures claim that all this has to do with the minerals and the illegal trade by armed groups. These minerals include Coltan, Tin, Tungsten, Tangtalum, and gold, which are mostly obtained through artisanal mining which leaves people in terrible conditions and causes a big impact on the environment.
Grace Rehema says I had the memories that we had been living there, but there was war, and we were struggling there.
UNHCR says, The DRC is facing a severe humanitarian crisis, with 6.9 million people internally displaced over 5 million of them in the eastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri. Even if the people are already in refugee camps, they can still be displaced and forced to leave those camps and try to find another place again. The opportunities of finding refugees have also reduced as immigration laws all over the world continue to be more strict.
Medecins Sans Frontieres says, In North Kivu Province, Goma’s Camps, housing more than 650,000 displaced people, were dismantled in February 2025 following the capture of the city by M23/AFC.
Medecins Sans Frontieres says MSF teams continue to treat new victims and survivors of sexual violence every day in facilities around the city (Goma) , totalling nearly 7,400 patients between January and April 2025.
Women in the DRC keep facing sexual violence which targets women from various age ranges, including children both girls and boys. This violence often results in genital mutilation, psychological trauma and prengnancies that usually become painful and end up with the mother dying due to the scarce medical care there is in east DR Congo.Women also face poor access to essential women’s health-care products like pads, tampons, and pain relievers. This leads to women having more painful menstrual periods and reusing underwear, pads, or trying other solutions of this kind that increase the risk of infections and other health problems in a woman’s body.
Recruitment is constantly happening in the DRC as different militias take children from their homes and families, boys usually find themselves in positions of being trained to serve in the militias, and girls are usually put in roles of sexual slavery as well as performing things like cooking and cleaning, yet some girls do fight in the militia, the recruitment can be force or “voluntary” even though this last one is attracting this kids by promising a “better” future.
UN Human Rights says We are particularly concerned by reports of children disappearing, being abducted or trafficked and recruited for use in combat by all parties to the conflict.
Education has also been threatened by the war. According to UNICEF over 1.6 million children in the east of the country are out of school due to the war. This deeply affects the rights that kids have to learn and how they will manage to recover their country after the conflict.
Jean François Basse said Education – and the support systems it provides – is what children need to retain a sense of normalcy and to recover and rebuild after this conflict.
As the war continues, so does the impact on the environment. Species like the Mountain Gorilla and Grauer’s Gorilla, which are particularly important as they maintain the forest ecosystem and are very similar to humans, are in danger thanks to the intervention of different Militias in the zone. These militias also contribute to deforestation through excessive timber trade.
Global Forest Watch says there were 539,458 deforestation alerts reported in Democratic Republic of the Congo between 20th of September and 27th of September.
Out of 10 people in Taylorsville High School that were asked if they knew what was happening in the DRC, only 4 said they knew the situation.
Few people know about what is happening in DR Congo as the media has mostly ignored this topic. The main way of communication of the world is technology, and this one has become an important part of people life’s some believe that there’s no way to help but simple things like not buying the new phone a big company has in the market but keep the yours until is necessary to buy a new one or donating to different organizations can provide a big difference for the people in DRC.
