According to the story of Wells and Oleniuk about the reality of mining in Congo, the minerals mined in the country include gold, cobalt, diamond and copper.
These minerals resulted to conflicts in the country despite Congo’s poorest condition as the largest state globally. The war resulted to spending of a lot of money and the military involved in the process lead to massacre of millions of people. Violence resulted to looting of resources by foreign soldiers and the Congo citizens. This resulted to destruction in the country that resulted to dislocation of families, disease outbreak because of mining, destruction on the environment. This also led to abuse in Congo, as children got involved in labor, and women engaged in rape and prostitution. Based on historic perspective, mass looting of properties took place on a large scale, and it involved states such as Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda to invade the Eastern and Southern part of the DRC.
Besides the invasion tactics-taking place, the soldiers engaged in business deals with the foreign firms on how to access the mining territories in Congo. From 1998 to 1999, foreigner looted minerals such as stocks, timber, livestock and agricultural illegally from the entrepreneurship in Congo. Lucas Oleniuk the photographer reveals how foreigners exported the products unlawfully to the foreign countries; during this process the troops from Uganda and Rwanda closed the entire local business operations by harassing the owners (Hayes&Burge, 2003 p.26). The Ugandans looted properties like cars, which increased automobiles in their country at a rate of 25 percent in 1999.
The mining in Congo and the violence that occurred in the country led in grabbing of land rich in Colton within the DRC territory in 1885. The situation in Congo became pathetic, from Oleniuk’s images, the site of the children involved in the mining process, women with children revealed risk they faced. During the active extraction process, Wells the Toronto star writer observed that the soldiers participated in looting of property on the small-scale basis. The confiscated properties from the country limited the natural resources resulting to inflation. The foreign soldiers firms replaced all toe companies that dealt with transport in Congo because of its poor economic status.
Congo encountered losses in the taxes levied on the natural resources because the foreign troops from Uganda and Rwanda took charge of the air services. The illegal air transportation in Congo resulted to exploitation in the country because of the new routes. The rate at which DRC exported minerals reduced drastically because of the invasion and poor roads because of destruction that affected the agricultural productivity and the mining rates. The invasion in Congo also resulted to minerals such as Colton to lose its quality, as they considered it the most valuable mineral that contributed to export in the country.The Ugandans and Rwandans took part in financing the war through incorporating the business deals, sharing of benefits with the other firms, and through taxation means. In Congo, the areas rich in diamond acted as the battlefields in which the foreign soldiers occupied the Eastern part of Congo a factor that lead to increased exploitation of resources.
During the war, soldiers in Rwanda stole Colton minerals from the village people and sold to the mineral dealers. The war made Congo unstable; the UN intervened, but it could not hinder the exploitation of resources in the country.
