"On the backs of trafficked workers and child labourers, China exploits the vast cobalt resources of the DRC to fuel its economy and global agenda," a congressional hearing on human rights violations heard this week

Rigobert Minani Bihuzo, a Catholic priest who has worked to expose child labour and human rights violations in the DRC's mining sector, testified to the dangerous working condition at the mines.

The children work 12 hours a day, seven days a week, he said. He described their working conditions as being "like slavery".

Injuries are common, and for those who are hurt or become sick, lack of medical care means "the majority will die due to various untreated illnesses", he said.

US representative Christopher Smith, who chaired the "Child Labour and Human Rights Violations" in the Mining Industry of the Democratic Republic of Congo, clearly voiced his views on the violations.

"The Chinese Communist Party's quest for cobalt for batteries and lithium for solar panels to power the so-called Green Economy motivates human rapacity as an estimated 40,000 children in Congo toil in non-regulated artisanal mines under hazardous conditions."

The DRC produces over 70 percent of the world's cobalt. 15 to 30 percent of this is produced in artisanal mines.

Smith said that, for years, these small-scale operations have been notorious for human rights violations. The congressional Council on Foreign Relations attributes some of the inhumane working condition to the DRCs instability - "a country weakened by violent ethnic conflict, Ebola and high levels of corruption".

Congolese civil rights attorney Hervé Diakiese Kyungu told the hearing children are trafficked and exploited because they are small.

Kyungu explained this is because the artisanal mines "are often no more than narrow shafts dug into the ground.

"Children are recruited — often forced — to descend into them, using only their hands or rudimentary tools without any protective equipment, to extract cobalt and other minerals."

At the Chinese company Dongfang Congo Mining, children are often exposed to radioactive minerals, injuries, and deadly and painful diseases as they work to extract the valuable ore, Kyungu testified.

They are also unpaid and exploited. The work is often fatal as the children are required to crawl into small holes dug into the earth.

"Officially artisanal mines are supposed to be owned by Congolese citizens working in ‘cooperatives'.

"In reality, they are selling the product extracted from these to the Chinese and other foreigners such as Pakistanis or Indians. The vast majority of this ore, however, is trafficked through Chinese intermediaries."

Chinese representatives are on site, overseeing the operations.

On one occasion "two persons identified as Chinese citizens… instructed two Congolese military officers to whip two Congolese who were found on their site".

The whipping, which was shared on the internet, demonstrates the cooperation between Chinese companies and DCR government officials, Kyungu said.

Source

• CNA

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One of the world's poorest countries, the landlocked Central African Republic has an extremely low level of human development.

The population of 5.2 million is 50 per cent and about half the Christians are Catholic.

Though Muslims make up no more than 15 per cent of the population, the Islamist rebel movement Seleka seized control in March, suspending the constitution and dissolving the parliament.

The Seleka have also plundered the country, looting from families, religious orders and the Church.

The African Catholic bishops' conference expressed "shock and outrage" at the "serious human rights violations" in the country, as well as the "quasi indifference of the international community".

The bishops called on international bodies, including the African Union, the European Union and the United Nations, to "help end all foreign interference in the country" and to "guarantee emergency humanitarian assistance".

The bishops themselves have mobilised the Catholic aid agency Caritas to contribute to an appeal for the country, and said they "urge … sister Churches of the world to intensify their solidarity with Caritas and the Church of the Central African Republic in their efforts to help the many victims".

The international medical agency Doctors Without Borders said that the country's health care system had collapsed, with most aid agencies having withdrawn to the capital city, leaving the rest of the country helpless.

Earlier, a statement from Archbishop Dieudonné Nzapalainga of Bangui and nine humanitarian organisations said about a million children are not going to school, thousands of children have been forced into the ranks of armed groups, the population is deprived of the most basic services, and "children and especially girls are exposed to a large number of abuses, including sexual violence and early marriage".

The Central African Republic is surrounded by six of Africa's most fragile nations: Chad, Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo and Cameroon.

Sources:

Catholic News Agency

Vatican News

Catholic News Service

Image: Caritas