Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
Siddharth Kara

Creator

Siddharth Kara

Women and children work at an artisanal cobalt mine in the South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photo: Augustin Wamenya/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
COBALT RED

Unearthing oppression in the DRC’s cobalt mines

This is an edited extract from Siddharth Kara’s book Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives

  • Siddharth Kara
11 min read
More than 60% of the world’s cobalt comes from the south-eastern provinces of DRC. (Reuters)

Is your phone tainted by the misery of the 35,000 children in Congo’s mines?

Our computers and phones keep us connected but a key ingredient in them keeps children as young as six locked in a vicious cycle for about R26 a day.

  • Siddharth Kara
7 min read