Author: Laura Heaton

A deadly wave of government-led bombings and ground attacks hit Darfur early this week, just on the heels of a vow by two prominent rebel leaders to work together for “regime change.” The humanitarian impact of the government’s air strikes and ground attacks were unclear and likely exacerbated by the fact that the government has blocked access for peacekeepers and aid groups to the affected areas ...

A weekly round-up of must-read stories, posted every Friday ...

Reacting to the new statistics boiled down to “four women raped every five minutes” in Congo, a few people questioned the accuracy of the findings, or suggested that “we don't need figures like this to know sexual violence is a problem.” Both responses may be true. But the press pick-up of the announcement of the American Journal of Public Health‘s findings proves its importance, at the very least, in redirecting attention to a persistent and particularly disturbing characteristic of the long conflict in eastern Congo ...

The question of ‘who is a southerner and who is a northerner?’ in Sudan will soon be unavoidable. The Khartoum government is set to begin registering citizens and issuing new national ID cards, a practical example of how the imminent split of Sudan will affect its citizens. The national ID card will be required to receive state-sponsored services, such as to register for school, conduct banking transactions, and acquire additional IDs and permits, such as passports and driving licenses ...

Awareness about the link between eastern Congo’s decade-long war, consumer electronics, and the trade in conflict minerals is growing. Perhaps most significantly, the conflict minerals provision of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act passed last year in no small part thanks to the efforts of activists, who pushed a notable shift in how people in Africa’s Great Lakes region perceived public concern over Congo’s minerals. The upside to the increasing attention on Congo’s conflict minerals is that a number of initiatives are underway to begin to trace, audit, and certify the mineral ores mined in Congo. However, without coordination or ...

Nowhere are the detrimental effects of Congo’s conflict minerals trade – the presence of multiple armed groups vying for power at the expense of civilians, the widespread use of rape to exert power and control local communities, the stark contrast between natural wealth alongside a deeply impoverished society – more prevalent than in the area of Walikale. This isn’t meant to be a comprehensive list of recommendations, but rather a reflection on the strongest takeaways and what could encourage more local-level buy-in for efforts to trace, audit, and certify the minerals trade: ...

A weekly round-up of must-read stories, posted every Friday ...

In Enough’s recent reporting from Walikale, a remote, minerals rich area of eastern Congo, we’ve noted in no uncertain terms that the humanitarian, security, and economic situation there is precarious. A decade after large mineral deposits were found in the region, livelihoods have become inextricably intertwined with mining, but the benefits of Walikale’s minerals fail to trickle down to the local population. One of the most promising initiatives for formalizing the mining industry is the establishment of centres de negoce, or trading centers ...

The paradox of Congo – ruin caused by years of war and poor governance amid enormous potential wealth – is a common theme when describing the challenges the country faces. But perhaps nowhere is the contradiction of utter lack of development amid abundant natural resources more pronounced than in Walikale, an isolated region in conflict-plagued eastern Congo ...

“We don’t understand why President Obama would want to cut off Congo’s minerals,” said Idrissa Assani, expressing a sentiment clearly shared by his fellow miners who sat together in the dark office of their mining cooperative. “It is the innocents who are vulnerable” and who will suffer most from “Obama’s law,” he said ...