Numerous individuals have died as a result of natural and man-made disasters in the developing DR Congo. This report emphasizes recent occurrences.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), home to more than 100 million people, is entirely landlocked despite having a 25-mile (40-km) Atlantic Ocean coastline. DRC is by far the world’s largest producer of cobalt, accounting for roughly 70 percent of global production. The country has been the top producer of the metal for some time, and reported output of 130,000 MT in 2022. The DRC is endowed with exceptional natural resources, including minerals such as cobalt and copper, hydropower potential, significant arable land, immense biodiversity, and the world’s second-largest rainforest. Though, the second largest country in Africa, DRC is among the five poorest nations in the world. In 2022, nearly 62% of Congolese, around 60 million people, lived on less than $2.15 a day. About one out of six people living in extreme poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa lives in DRC.
The Harsh Reality of Environmental Hazards
Incessant flooding in the country are increasingly being connected to climate change. But discerning the relationship between any given flood and climate change is no small feat. This is made difficult by limited historical records, particularly for the most extreme floods, which occur infrequently, experts have said. Projected increases in temperature, more extreme weather events, and changes in total precipitation and rainfall variability are likely to exacerbate these challenges. This would have an impact on the central engine of the DRC’s economy and the primary source of livelihood for most Congolese which is agriculture that is majority rain fed.
In the first week of May 2023, in the South Kivu province, flooding from a river has caused serious damage in the villages of Bushushu and Nyamukubi. In the North Kivu province, the police have reported finding bodies in numerous communities. An official statement from the government of South Kivu province in eastern part of DRC has indicated that the death toll following flooding and landslides in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the first week of May has risen to at least 401.
On Thursday of the same week, in several villages close to the shore of Lake Kivu, people have been digging through the mud with their hands in a desperate search for missing relatives, report stated. UN chief António Guterres said that the floods were “yet another illustration of accelerating climate change and its disastrous impact on countries that have done nothing to contribute to global warming.”
A UN agency assessment claims that heavy rainfall will cause floods, landslides and foster waterborne diseases, which will likely claim human lives. The report states that, “As DRC is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, adaptation should be a key concern and priority for the country. Increasing rainfall and droughts will hamper agricultural productivity as well as the hydropower industry, both of which are key to DRC’s economy.”
Surviving Tragedy Against the Odds
Despite being ill-equipped and lacking training, hundreds of informal miners continue to search for diamonds, gold, and other minerals in the country’s eastern region, where frequent mining accidents occur. These sites are being visited by unauthorized miners at night in search of diamonds despite the authorities’ mining restrictions for to safety reasons. The results of a previous study have revealed that “hundreds of thousands of poor Congolese people, including tens of thousands of children, are digging cobalt out of ground in extremely hazardous conditions for barely a dollar or two per day. They suffer shattered bones, toxic contamination, and are buried alive in tunnel collapses.” According to a survey conducted in the cobalt-producing provinces, the number of fatalities in artisanal cobalt mining in the DRC has been estimated at up to 2000 per year (Siddharth, 2023).
According to a recent news article from Channels Television (2023), a diamond mine collapse in the Democratic Republic of Congo resulted in the deaths of six individuals. The accident took place in the Diboko area in the central Kasai province. This tragic incident is just one example of the dangerous working conditions faced by miners in the DRC. Those killed were “unauthorised diggers who entered an area where mining is forbidden” officials have said.
The Wealthy-Poor Congolese Always on the Move
Thousands of families were forced to flee their homes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in search of safety as a result of armed group conflict, keeping their kids from going to school. Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is rich in rare minerals that are in demand across the world. The country’s massive resource wealth—estimated to include $24 trillion of untapped mineral resources—also fuels violence. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency said, “With 6.2 million internally displaced people (IDPs), and more than 1.3 million Congolese who have crossed to other countries in Africa to seek refuge, the situation in the DRC is one of the continent’s most complex and long-standing humanitarian crises. In the eastern DRC’s North Kivu Province, a staggering 1.2 million people have been forced to flee their homes since March 2022 when clashes between armed groups and government forces reignited. Consequently, hundreds of thousands now endure dire living conditions in rudimentary shelters around North Kivu’s provincial capital, Goma, and the Kanyaruchinya district on its outskirts.” ( UNHCR, 2022).
Sixty bodies were discovered in several villages in North Kivu Province, Congolese on Wednesday, government official have said. At least 13 civilians were killed in a camp for displaced people on Wednesday night in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, in a region where sporadic clashes between armed groups and the M23 rebellion persists. The wealth the country offers has encouraged many rebel groups to form and try to seize the mines from the government. This has resulted in many years of conflict and forced over a million people to flee to other countries (UNICEF, 2022).
The current situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo is a humanitarian crisis and this has seriously disrupted the lives of the people caught up in the chaos. It is important that the government of the country and relevant region powers come to the aid of those affected. Enough has been said already, what the people need is succour to their predicament, this can be actualised through deliberate action.
Be First to Comment