Conflict Minerals

758 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: College research paper essay about civil war in congo 2006

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has been and unstable area for decades. Between the wars, conflicts, and armed groups nothing about the country is safe. Armed rebel militias earn millions of dollars more than the country is worth every year by selling conflict minerals. Conflict Minerals are defined as minerals that have been retrieved from areas of war or strife. These minerals could be in our electronics devices, and other products we use everyday. Government troops and militias fight to control the mines, murdering civilians, fracturing the structure of society leaving the country weak. Locals in small, poor communities are exploited or forced into the gruesome mining economy. A statistic estimates that over 50% of the mines have rebel groups stationed in them. Money earned from the sale of conflict minerals is used for personal profit and to create more violence. Minerals are smuggled out of Congo through neighboring countries, then sold to smelters around the world for refinement. Once minerals are processed in this way, it’s difficult to trace their origin. Conflict minerals easily make their way to the U.S. and all over the world in consumer products. Companies need these minerals for as cheap as they can get them. There is no clear solution to the problem, and the issue could go on for decades. The country is weak and corrupted with no where to turn. The alleged Government has worked with the rebels, trying to get whatever money they can, even if it means their own citizens being slaughtered and forced to work. There are no good guy or bad guys, nothing is in black or white, just a murky shade of gray. The entire country is just trying to do whatever it can to survive.

The problem is simple, everyone wants money. Th...

... middle of paper ...

... secretive. They guard perimeters that stretch for miles around mines. The armies are highly hostile and want nothing to do with anyone. A solution that is practical for everyone has yet to be formulated. Hopefully one if found soon, because innocent people are dying at a rate of almost 4,000 every day.
This is the most important global issue of our generation. The entire country is killing itself, another war could break out at any minute. Civilians are dying, not the armies. Attacks from rebel groups spread diseases that plague the region. It is a crime to let this happen any longer but no one knows how to stop it. These rebel groups are making more money than the country is worth each year and that money is being used to fund their deadly campaigns. The rich countries are reluctant to do anything because they need cheap minerals for the products we use everyday.

Show More
Related

  • Sierra Leone and the Blood Diamonds: Civil War and Children

    524 Words  | 2 Pages

    Being located in the west coast of Africa and between Guinea and Liberia, “Sierra Leone has an abundance of easily extractable diamonds”(BBC News). The diamonds had brought “encouragement” for violence in the country in 1991. Attacks of the Revolutionary “United Front (RUF) ,led by former army corporal Foday Sankoh”(Encyclopedia Britannica), were on government military and civilians. In response to a corrupt government, the RUF performed violent and terrorist acts that scarred many. “The RUF captured civilians and forced them to work”(Analyzing the Causes) in their army to gain control over Sierra Leone. The savages went a...

    Read More

  • Causes Of War In Syria Dbq

    560 Words  | 2 Pages

    The war in Syria has been going on for six years now, killing more than a quarter million people and forcing over 10 million people to leave their homes. It has started with a peaceful protest and is now a full on genocide of people dying. The protest was for the arrest and torturing of Syrian teens for the graffiti of their anti government on a wall. When people form other people that were tired of the government saw this, they wanted their president to make major reforms of their democracy. He didn't like that, so he responded with a violent reaction. He killed thousands of Syrians and more from starvation. As the war went on, more people came in to play a role in the war. These people were from many different places. It has gotten so bad that politicians don't know what to do to stop it.

    Read More

  • Mayan Genocide In Guatemala

    1306 Words  | 3 Pages

    While the 200,000 people killed during the 36 years of civil war is a large number the average violent deaths per year has increased to 54,223 in the years between 2000 and 2010 (Birns). The violence is an impact of the civil war leaving behind an inadequate judicial system and a corrupt police force without resolution by Peace Accords. The people now more than ever take matters into their own hands considering the court system leaves “ninety-seven percent of cases unsolved” (Birns). It is even common for many people who do not receive adequate “justice to form lynch mobs or hire assassins”

    Read More

  • From Leopoldville to Kinshasa, Congo: Belgium’s Claim to Fame

    1922 Words  | 4 Pages

    Meece, Roger. U.S. Department of State: Diplomacy in action, "Democratic Republic of the Congo." Last modified Nov 04, 2013. Accessed May 10, 2014. http://www.state.gov/outofdate/bgn/congokinshasa/40495.htm.

    Read More

  • Uganda: A Country in Need of Economic Growth

    1186 Words  | 3 Pages

    For decades, Uganda’s economy has suffered through disappointing economic policies and instabilities. These setbacks have been put forth by a chronically unreliable government, leaving it as one of the world’s poorest countries. Uganda’s weak infrastructure and corrupt government are two of the primary constraints against a continuation of economic growth. Uganda has ongoing military involvement in the War on Congo, wrongly taking money from the already deprived country and into the war. Many villages in Uganda also have to waste their precious money and time in pursuit of hiding places. They are faced with a group known as, The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). LRA is infamous for their twenty years of massacre and slaughter in Uganda, causing an estimated 1.5 million internally displayed persons. Several people are questioning why the LRA is still terrorizing the country and criticizing the government’s commitment to putting an end this horrific group. The Inspector General of Government (IGG) ...

    Read More

  • Syrian Civil War Dbq

    1002 Words  | 3 Pages

    This was known as the Arab Spring. Eventually, peaceful protests erupted in Syria as well… The Syrian government, led by President Bashar al-Assad, responded to the protests violently. It killed hundreds of demonstrators and imprisoned many more.” (Document A). This could easily be prevented if the United States or some other countries in the United Nations stepped in and negotiated peace with Syria. The Syrian government has been wreaking havoc in its own country and the Syrian rebels are trying to wreak havoc in the government. If only there were countries to step in and help out, give aid to refugees and wounded persons, rebuild some of the destroyed buildings and help Syria negotiate peace. If the Syrian rebels and the Syrian government were given the chance, there might be a way for them to compromise and spread peace throughout Syria. If we hesitate for to long, there might not be a Syria left to

    Read More

  • The Congo Free State

    1971 Words  | 4 Pages

    ... attention allowed economic exploitation in the Congo and its people devastated by human rights abuses, and even today the lack of international attention has caused many conflicts in and around the Congo. The economic exploitation of the Congo during colonial times robbed the country of wealth which could have been used to develop the land, and the lack of wealth has contributed to Congo’s poor standing in the world today. Lastly, the human rights abuses in the Congo Free State contributed to economic and political troubles during the colonial period and has continued into the present day, as human rights abuses are still prevalent in that region of Africa. Due to the lack of international attention, economic exploitation, and human rights abuses, the Congo Free State was harmful to the Congo region of Africa and its legacy continues to harm that region of Africa.

    Read More

  • Conflict and Corruption in the Democratic Republic of Congo

    1388 Words  | 3 Pages

    Africa has long been a nation of conflict and strife. Certain countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have a prolonged history of corrupt leaders, violence and lack of resources. These conflicts often can lead to spill over and create wars in their neighboring countries. When a weak state has internal conflict it often spreads to surrounding weak states as it did with many of the countries in central Africa. This type of crisis will often involve the entire world in a variety of capacities such as militaries, foreign aid and the global economy. Congo especially has proved to create problems that continue to persist in the modern world and much of that is due to leadership of Motubu Sese Seko. “The conflict [in Congo] produced tremendous carnage: as many as 3.8 million dead and many more injured or displaced. Both phrases of the war (1996-97 and 1998-2002) involved domestic militias, a massive foreign invasion, and shifting alliances – with Angola, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe playing major roles. Even though the was has officially ended, peace remains elusive”(Atzili 2007 pg 141). One player’s internal conflicts spread through an entire continent and affected the whole world and caused enormous damage. All countries need to strive to maintain strong institutions to be a good global citizen and one of the keys to this is leadership.

    Read More

  • Civil War in Congo

    1684 Words  | 4 Pages

    The recent Civil War in Congo has been a bloody flight, causing more than 3.3 million deaths in just 4 short years.1 Various rebel and ethnic groups have been involved in the violence, fighting over Congo's rich natural resources or engaged in a bitter ethnic war. With so many opposing factions, it has made reaching a solution difficult. While a rough peace treaty has been established, sporadic fighting pops up in the country every day. The people of Congo are being pushed further into poverty and starvation, and can't handle the fighting for very much longer.

    Read More

  • The Congo Crisis

    2492 Words  | 5 Pages

    Over a period from 1960-1965, the first Republic of the Congo experienced a period of serious crisis. There was a terrible war for power that displayed senseless violence and the desperation to rule. There were many internal conflicts among the people. The country eventually gained independence from Belgium. For many countries this would be a time for celebration. Unfortunately for the people of the Congo this became a time to forget. Almost immediately after independence and the general elections, the country went into civil war. Major developed cities like Katanga and Kasai wanted to be independent from the Lumumba government. Different factions started to fight the government and Katanga and Kasai tried to secede from the rest of the country out of fear of the mutinous army that was out of control looting and killing.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Iraq War

    698 Words  | 2 Pages

    So why does Americans keep trying to force democracy on them, and onto the corrupt officials who solely look to democracy as a way to keep themselves in power. While civilian casualties cause many locals to raise and join the extremist groups to fight the American troops deployed. The tides continue to turn against the U.S. and help breed its

    Read More

  • There Is No Congo Essay

    1125 Words  | 3 Pages

    It has an inefficient political institution, proved by the process of “decongolisation”- which explains how pillage has led to the usage natural resources benefiting foreigners more than natives. No capacity to govern – proven by their extensive history of civil war. No evidence of a common national unity. The nation is evidently unable to exercise monopoly as a state as seen in how foreign influence has proven ability to exploit the countries natural resources with the participation of the Congolese elite. Alternatively Congo would be regarded to as a juridical state.

    Read More

  • Sierra Leone Essay

    725 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hirsch (2001:25) and Davies (2000:345) have both argued that, “Sierra Leone produced US$ 300-US$450 million worth of diamonds annually in the 1980s and 1990s which were apparently smuggled from the country through Liberia and Ivory Coast leaving majority of Sierra Leoneans in extreme poverty.” Which lead to an 11 year of brutal civil war. The country was in a state of collapse during the 80s when President Stevens hosted the African Union (AU) Summit which was very expensive and uncalled for, the aftermath was very severe on the economy, since then the economy has never been the same. People were devastated and angry as unemployment and poverty rate became very high which led to the formation of the “lumpen youths”-a disgruntled anti-social movement of drug addicts, thieves and gamblers that are unemployed and unemployable. A term coined by Abdulla in his book “Democracy and Terror: The Sierra Leone Civil War.”

    Read More

  • Ethnic Conflict Essay

    2024 Words  | 5 Pages

    From an article, Ethnicity, Insurgency and Civil War, written by James Fearon and David Laitin, they did research on many civil wars but made a certain criterion to help them define what intra-state war in considered a civil war. There are three requirements. According to F&L, they are “first, they involve fighting between agents of (or claimants to) a state and organized, nonstate groups who sought either to take control of a government, to take power in a region, or to use violence to change government policies. (1) They involved fighting between agentsof(or claimants to) a state and organized, nonstate groups who sought either to take control of a government, to use violence to change government policies. (2) The conflict killed at least 1,000 over its course, with a yearly average of at least 100. (3) At least 100 were killed on both sides (including civilians attacked by rebels) (F&L 76)”. Now, the last condition is in there to help distinguish from a civil war from a genocide. A genocide is one when side dominates the others and is considered a mass killing like Adolf Hitler in Europe or the Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda. There are factors that can influence and lead up to a civil war. Having $1000 or less in per captia income on average for the state, can increase the odds of civil war. Some other factors are political instability (if there was any instability in the government in the

    Read More

  • Poverty In Africa Essay

    1353 Words  | 3 Pages

    At the height of the conflict, about one third of the country's people were displaced. The chronic financial crisis became severe and the economy was close to collapsing. Poverty has become deeper in the rural areas of the Congo where poor people are now powerless, vulnerable and isolated. This is a big contributor to the poverty Congo is experiencing today, because little has improved and won’t improve until these problems are fixed. Overall, Central Africa’s dependence on agriculture could improve the wellbeing of the people but a long history of corruption, violence, and prevalent transportation issues have hindered an improvement in the economy resulting in poverty in the region.

    Read More

More about Conflict Minerals

Open Document