I began writing this post about two weeks ago. Each time I sat down to write, I had to stop ...the tears began to flow, heartbroken and overwhelmed by what I have seen and read about this subject. I would turned off my computer and walk away, wondering in the recesses of my mind if the very instrument that I am using to research and share this story, is a contributor to the rape, torture and denigration of little girls, young women, old women and little boys.

Most of the information used in this post is not my own, but comes from a plethora of sources; sadly experts to such an horrific subject matter. I wish to properly attribute the following information to Blood in the Mobile, United Nations Security Council, Unwatchable, Save the Congo and Enough Project

The Congo is worth more than 24 trillion US Dollars. This is equivalent to the annual wealth of Europe and USA combined and due to it’s untapped natural resources, which include a vast amount of raw minerals/metals. However, there are over 21 different armed groups occupying the congo, all trying to control and profit from these resources. Congo is the size of western europe. It has no protected borders, making it easy to illegally trade these conflict minerals. These minerals end up in electronics that we use everyday including our Mobile phones and Computers and DVD’s players.In order to gain access with ease to these minerals, militias terrorize local communities.

Phones are financing war in DR Congo. We love our cell phones and the selection between different models has never been bigger. But the production of phones has a dark, bloody side. The main part of minerals used to produce cell phones are coming from the mines in the Eastern DR Congo. The Western World is buying these so-called conflict minerals and thereby finances a civil war that, according to human rights organisations, has been the bloodiest conflict since World War II: During the last 15 years the conflict has cost the lives of more than 5 million people and 300.000 women have been raped. The war will continue as long as armed groups can finance their warfare by selling minerals.

The most effective tactics used are rape and murder. Using rape as tactic of war is not only physically terrorizing, it is physiologically so damaging that the communities break apart into a form of social chaos, leaving no one to resist or challenge these armed groups. This method of war is recognized by the UN as a strategic tactic, Amnesty International has stated that rape is cheaper and more effective than bullets

Armed groups Ransack villages for men and boys forcing them to kill their mothers and rape their sisters, so they have no one to returned home to. Many of the armed groups are controlled by fear and are occupied by men who have been forced to enlist. The men within these armed groups are unpaid and are often starving – essentially they are armed slaves. in order to survive they loot villages for money and food.

If you ask the phone companies where their suppliers get minerals from, none of them can guarantee that they aren’t buying conflict minerals from the Congo. Our electronic companies are fueling this war by not taking responsibility of where their sourcing their materials from. doing business direct or indirectly with brutal armed war lords is Criminal and gives silent approval to these gross acts against humanity (Unwatchable.cc and Blood in the Mobile).