A Harrowing Legacy: Context of Humanitarian Crises In the Congo
As global human rights affairs grow more prominent in social justice, the humanitarian crises confronted in the Democratic Republic of Congo are some of the many issues at the forefront of justice. In recent years, the human rights crises the Republic faces are a web of intersectional factors: post-colonialism, political conflict, militant dangers, and more.
A history of exploitation has haunted the people of the Congo. From the regime of Belgian King Leopold II in 1885 to modern-day mining for cobalt — the metal used to make batteries, electronic devices, and such— the people of the Republic have been subjected to forced labor from ages as young as 5. Leopold established the “Congo Free State” on Feb. 5, 1885, taking private control over the land — essentially as his private colony — until 1908. During this period, Leopold’s privatized reign over the Congo allowed him to exploit the land and its people beyond humane boundaries. The Congolese people were subjected to forced labor to extract resources like rubber, ivory, and more. While the enslaved Congolese people were forced to power to Leaopold’s resource industry and profits, they were starved, exposed to unsanitary conditions — resulting in disease and mass deaths — and brutally punished for minor mistakes.
Although King Leopold’s regime over the Congo ended, the legacy of enslavement that has kept the country from knowing humane justice has remained prominent. Modern-day slavery in the Congo is almost completely composed of cobalt mining, with over 60% of the world’s cobalt benign sourced from there. The 2023 Global Slavery Index found that in 2021, there were 407,000 people living in modern slavery in the [Democratic Republic of Congo].” People are packed into crowded working conditions, forced to dig and mine with no supporting machinery or equipment, and paid little-to-no wages. 40,000 children have been reported to be working in these conditions, becoming vulnerable targets for human trafficking, respiratory diseases, and other health infections.
Alongside the historically embedded slavery, dating back to the formation of the League of Nations in 1916, the Belgian League of Nations Mandate of 1923 authorized Belgium to colonize and govern the southeastern countries of Rwanda, Urundi, and Congo — although recognized as a colony at the time. During this period of Belgian jurisdiction, African communities and harmony were largely disrupted as colonial hierarchies caused capitalistic conflict within society. In particular, Belgian favoritism and ethnic hierarchies in Rwanda led to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, during which extremists of the Hutu ethnic group killed roughly one million Tutsi ethnic minorities.
In the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, the Congo experienced a flood of an estimated two million Hutu refugees. Escaping new Tutsi jurisdiction in post-genocide Rwanda, the Hutu refugees settled in the Republic’s eastern territories, North Kivu and South Kivu. Instability began to arise as a number of the Hutu refugees who were extremists — known as Interahamwe — began organizing militias in Congo and reissuing a cycle of tension with Rwanda. As tensions between foreign powers and armed forces intensified, the threats of military presence have caused intersectional humanitarian crises to take root in the Congo since then.
Now, as militant invasions escalate, gender-based violence and clashes between groups are resulting in disproportionate levels of devastation among the Congolese people. A report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees mentions that these human rights violations are leading to “unprecedented levels of protection needs, vulnerabilities and risks, displacing 6.1 million people within the country and forcing 1 million to seek asylum across Africa.”
The human rights violations in the Congo are anything but recent, rooted in centuries worth of political corruption and exploitation. It is essential to approach social justice issues with a historical lens because then we will be able to understand that the oppression of communities is not simply black and white, but rather, multi-faceted.
