Africa Archives ™ Profile picture
Mar 27, 2023 10 tweets 6 min read Read on X
Big Companies thriving by exploiting Democratic Republic of the Congo while at the same time using Children miners to their own benefit. #ENDILLEGALMININGAFRICA

Coltan is one of the world’s most vital minerals, and 60% of reserves globally are found in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo’s Kivu province. In 2019, 40% of the global coltan supply was produced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The mineral is used in cell phones, laptops and other devices because of its particular ability to store and release #ENDILLEGALMININGAFRICA
electrical energy. As 5G technology grows demand for Congolese coltan will increase. But this is not good news for everyone in the DRC. Much of the country’s coltan is extracted using the labour of over 40 000 child and teenage miners. #ENDILLEGALMININGAFRICA
Coming from remote villages and towns in Kivu, they either drop out of school or have never had the opportunity to attend. The informality of the extractive sector provides attractive job opportunities for vulnerable children, #ENDILLEGALMININGAFRICA
who serve as a pool of cheap labour. Children work as washers and diggers in dangerous conditions. They also engage in petty smuggling, selling coltan for a pittance in towns along the borders with Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda. #ENDILLEGALMININGAFRICA
Doing adults’ work in a hazardous environment, many child miners face sexual harassment, rape, abuse and ill health. Occupational hazards include daily exposure to Radon, a radioactive substance associated with coltan, which has been linked to lung cancer. #ENDILLEGALMININGAFRICA
As the system stands now, nearly everybody but the workers involved profit from the buying and selling of coltan. Distributors and mine owners get their profits from the raw material. Companies like Tesla Inc, Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc, Microsoft Corp and Dell Technologies Inc..
gets the capacitors it needs to work its electronics, consumers get the final product. These companies the richest companies in the world, these fancy gadget-making companies have allowed children to be maimed and killed to get their cheap cobalt. #ENDILLEGALMININGAFRICA
Cobalt is essential in making rechargeable lithium batteries used in millions of products sold by the tech industry. The workers in the DRC mines are exploited and lead horrible, deprived lives. #ENDILLEGALMININGAFRICA
The Congolese government also takes some damage as well, as "blood minerals" exported from the Congo are used to further fund the ongoing coups and civil wars that seem never to end. #ENDILLEGALMININGAFRICA

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Africa Archives ™

Africa Archives ™ Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @Africa_Archives

Jul 30, 2023
Libya was the world's poorest country in 1951. Gaddafi made it Africa's most developed country with $150 billion foreign reserves & zero debt. Under Muammar Gaddafi, Libya had one of the world's strongest currencies. Image
1 Libyan Dinar equalled $0.82781 in 2011. Gaddafi wanted to give all African countries the Dinar to strengthen their economies. He also had more than 140 Tonnes of Gold and similar amounts in silver which he wanted to distribute across Africa to be used in trading.
Libya under Gaddafi.

-Free health care
-Free Electricity
-Free housing, owning a house was considered a human right in Libya
-Free medicine
-Free Education in the country including for all Libyan students who were studying abroad.
-Free water, he built a river
Read 6 tweets
Jul 30, 2023
Leaked Hillary Clinton Emails Revealed NATO Killed Gaddafi to Stop the formation of a United States of Africa.
Image
Image
Of the 3,000 emails released from Hillary Clinton's private email server in late December 2015, about a third were from her close confidante Sidney Blumenthal. One of these emails, dated April 2, 2011, read in part:
"Qaddafi's government holds 143 tons of gold, and a similar amount in silver ... This gold was accumulated prior to the current rebellion and was intended to be used to establish a pan-African currency based on the Libyan golden Dinar.
Read 9 tweets
Jul 29, 2023
“It’s disappointing because in Europe, when people take up arms to defend their homeland, we call them patriots. Our grandfathers were deported to save Europe. It wasn’t with their consent, it was against their will. But on their return... Image
we remember well that at Thiaroye, when they wanted to claim their basic rights, they were massacred. It doesn’t matter. When we, the people, decide to defend ourselves, we are called militias. But that’s not the problem. The problem is to see African heads of state who bring...
nothing to these peoples who are fighting, but who sing the same songs as the imperialists, calling us militias, calling us men who don’t respect human rights. What human rights are we talking about? We take offence at this, and it’s shameful. Image
Read 5 tweets
Jun 12, 2023
In the 1990's there was a widely circulated photo of a vulture waiting for a starving little girl to die and feast on her corp. That photo was taken during the 1993/94 famine in Sudan, by Kevin Carter, a South African photojournalist, who later won the Pulitzer Prize for... Image
this 'amazing shot'.* However, as Kevin Carter was savouring his feat and being celebrated on major news channels and networks worldwide for such an 'exceptional photographic skill', he lived just for a few months to enjoy his supposed achievement and fame, as he later got
depressed and took his own life! Kevin Carter's depression started, when during one of such interviews (a phone-in programme), someone called in and asked him what happened to the little girl. He simply replied, "I didn't wait to find out after this shot, as I had a flight to Image
Read 5 tweets
May 29, 2023
Some peõple does not know that there were ancient African games that had tremendous popularity and respect even before the arrival of sports like foôtball, baskëtball, Vollëyball and others to Africa, but regrettably these sports were dropped and slowly forgotten. Image
Long before còlonialism, the high jump was a national sport at which Rwandans excelled. It was a tradition of great importance in Rwandan society, as men would frequently jump over 6 feet 6 inches in displays of their physical abilities. At important celebrations,
the Rwandan kings would order a series of cultural activities to be performed at the court. The high jump was one of the activities typically included at such events. It was also performed at important weddings and outside the court at local gatherings of importance. Image
Read 4 tweets
May 28, 2023
Chinese National, Deng Jailed 5 Years For Illegal Mining In Nigeria.

He was arrested on Friday, September 9, 2022, by the Ilorin Zonal Command of the commission. The Federal High Court in Ilorin on Wednesday, #STOPCHINESEILLEGALMINING Image
convicted and sentenced a 29-year-old Chinese national, Gang Deng, to five years imprisonment for offences bordering on illegal mining and possession of minerals without lawful authority. Justice Muhammed Sani convicted Gang in a suit filed by Nigeria's anti-graft agency,
the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against him. A statement issued by the Head of Media and Publicity, EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, said that the convict was arrested along Tsaragi Road in Share, Edu Local Government Area of Kwara State. #STOPCHINESEILLEGALMINING Image
Read 13 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(