Suffering, Exploitation, and Displacement

The funeral of ten-month-old who died from diarrhoea and vomiting a few days after arriving in the Gety camp. She was one of eighteen people who died that day, just before the historic elections in Congo. 2006 © Marcus Bleasdale

FARDC soldiers on the frontline in Goma, during an offensive against the CNDP. 2007 © Marcus Bleasdale

A young miner about 14-15 years old (he did not know) works with other miners in the mining town of Pluto in Ituri Province to extract rock and sand from a large pit which has taken over a year to excavate. The miners are made up of many different people from all over Congo who come to seek their fortune. 2013 © Marcus Bleasdale

The troops of Cobra Matata on patrol outside of Gety. They are recruited from the local youth and many of them are under 16 years of age. 2013 © Marcus Bleasdale

From the UN panel of experts’ report 2012

FRPI controls the gold mining site of Bavi from where, according to an ex-FRPI combatant and inhabitants of Bavi, the rebels generate profits through illegal taxation and the direct sale of gold. According to traders in Bunia, gold from Bavi is of superior quality in the region, which makes it easy to recognize. The main buyers are traders from Bunia and Butembo. FRPI also sells gold directly to Ugandan armed forces officers posted along the Congolese border. A regular client, cited by Congolese armed forces, militia members and a Lendu community leader, is a former Ugandan armed forces officer, Alex Mugisha. In exchange for gold, he has delivered arms and munitions to FRPI at the Semliki border crossing.

FARDC soldiers on the frontline in Goma during an offensive against the CNDP. 2008 © Marcus Bleasdale

FARDC soldiers on the frontline in Goma during an offensive against the CNDP. 2008 © Marcus Bleasdale

Miners and Traders cross the flooded river to the Gold mine in Baru, Mongbwalu. Recently discovered it has over 3000 miners working extracting gold. Many of them are soldiers who have deserted and come to look for money. Whole families have relocated to be close to the mine. 2013 © Marcus Bleasdale

The troops of Cobra Matata on patrol outside of Gety. They are paid very little and use their power to loot locals of essential food items. Rape is often used as a weapon of war by armed groups in these areas. 2013 © Marcus Bleasdale

Miners in the mining town of Pluto in Ituri Province filter the ground rocks and sand from a large pit which has taken over a year to excavate in order to find Gold. The miners are made up of many different people from all over Congo who come to seek their fortune. 2013 © Marcus Bleasdale

The Congolese valleys in the morning before a battle. 2008 © Marcus Bleasdale

A girl walks back to her home in the displaced camp outside Goma. 2007 © Marcus Bleasdale

Miners work to extract soil and rocks from the large 500-meter pit in Baru, Mongbwalu. The gold in this valley was discovered in November 2012 and since then thousands of workers and traders and soldiers have arrived to look for their fortune. The owner of the land has sold his land in sections of 3 meters by 6 meters for 250 USD each section. Access to Gold has been the main reason for the conflict in Ituri province. 2013 © Marcus Bleasdale

Miners eat lunch from a communal bowl in the mining town of Pluto in Ituri Province. They work here to extract rock and sand from a large pit which has taken over a year to excavate. The miners are made up of many different people from all over Congo who come to seek their fortune. 2013 © Marcus Bleasdale

Marie age 32 has 6 children she fled from the Kibumba displaced persons camp in Rutshuru Territory after fighting between Bosco Ntaganda M23 and FARDC. She arrived here in November 2012. She has moved home within the camp as she was evicted from the previous building she was sheltering in. They now build traditional dwellings to protect themselves from the rain and elements. 2013 © Marcus Bleasdale

Displaced camp Mungungu 2 under the volcano Mt Nyriagongo in Goma. 2013 © Marcus Bleasdale

Shadows of people lining up to enter a health centre in Kisungi, 2005. In less than a year, approximately 92,000 people have been displaced in central Katanga. This displacement layered onto pre-existing levels of displacement in these and adjacent zones in central and northern Katanga, which places huge strains on the crumbling health resources in the region. 2006

The displaced camp in Rubaya where locals have fled to safety after fighting between M23 and FARDC. 2013 © Marcus Bleasdale

The burial of an eight-month old who died from cholera in Kibati, north of Goma in eastern Congo. 2007 © Marcus Bleasdale

A child gold miner in Watsa, northeastern Congo. 2004 © Marcus Bleasdale

The soldiers of General Mathieu Ngudjolo, just outside the town of Bunia. The militia leader claimed to control the combined forces of the Movement for the Revolution of Congo. The general has since been indicted by the International Criminal Court. The charges include murder, sexual slavery and using children under the age of fifteen as frontline fighters. 2004 © Marcus Bleasdale

Bonded workers crush rocks in Mongbwalu, eastern Congo. Whole families work in slave conditions for warlords, controlling huge amounts of land, where gold is extracted to finance their military campaigns. 2004 © Marcus Bleasdale

Diamond dealers buy stones in Mbuji-Mayi, Congo’s diamond centre. Many dealers become pastors in order to use religious influence to convince their congregation to join the diamond trade. Approximately three million people live in the diamond town, where most agriculture has ceased and been replaced by the diamond rush. 2005 © Marcus Bleasdale

The bush in Gety is a source of firewood for the displaced, and also where many women are regularly attacked and raped at gunpoint by the Congolese military. 2006 © Marcus Bleasdale

A child soldier rides back to his base in Ituri district, northeastern Congo. 2003 © Marcus Bleasdale

Fataki, northeastern Congo, after a Lendu attack that killed twenty-two people and displaced 7,000 others. 2003

© Marcus Bleasdale

Displaced people who fled from the villages of Ishasha to Kiwanja build makeshift homes in front of the UN compound as CNDP rebels attack the town. 2008

© Marcus Bleasdale

Displaced people in Kiwanja village wait for food handouts from the World Food Programme. 2008 © Marcus Bleasdale

Displaced people bring back water to their camp in Goma after fleeing fighting in Karuba and Mushake as fighting rages between government forces and rebels in Karuba, North Kivu province. 2007 © Marcus Bleasdale

Refugees flee south after a rebel attack on Bule and Fataki, northeastern Congo. 2003 © Marcus Bleasdale

Children at a centre for street kids in Kinshasa. Many children are made homeless after being accused of being sorcerers when a family suffers bad luck and economic hardship. 2005 © Marcus Bleasdale

A gold miner suffering from tuberculosis in Mongbwalu, northeastern Congo, is left to fend for himself in a sanatorium. Most of the miners in this region are combatants who have controlled mineral-rich areas and are profiting from resource exploitation. Others are bonded workers forced by soldiers to mine for little reward. 2004 © Marcus Bleasdale

Displaced people fish in the evening on the Congo River outside Nyonga, Katanga province. 2005 © Marcus Bleasdale

The family of Peter, mourn his death from tuberculosis. He’d been sick for four years and died after having to march through the bush to flee fighting near Gety. 2006 © Marcus Bleasdale

The coffin arrives for the burial Sakura Lisi an eight-month-old, the daughter of a gold miner in Mongbwalu, northeastern Congo. She died from anemia brought on by malaria. 2004 © Marcus Bleasdale

The washing of the body of Sakura Lisi at the burial, the daughter of a gold miner in Mongbwalu, northeastern Congo. 2004 © Marcus Bleasdale

The burial of Sakura Lisi an eight-month-old, the daughter of a gold miner in Mongbwalu, northeastern Congo. 2004 © Marcus Bleasdale

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Photos by © Marcus Bleasdale

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Suffering, Exploitation, and Displacement

Authors: Dr. Alexander L. Fattal, Marcus Bleasdele • Resource type: Art

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Marcus Bleasdale’s images of the conflict in eastern Democratic of Congo (DRC) emerge from a decade-long immersion in the troubled dynamics of that region. In the background of his images that highlight human suffering, exploitation, and displacement, is a land bedeviled by its riches. By documenting how the quest for mineral wealth reconfigures the social and economic landscape, Bleasdale opens windows onto the importance of understanding the “resource curse” that has beset eastern DRC.

This photo-essay juxtaposes vibrant color and dramatic black and white images. Whereas the former accentuates the fecundity of the landscapes, the latter, with its silver chemicals layered onto the veneer of the film creates a grainy affect, a visual gesture to the labor minerals extracted from the earth. Through Bleasdale’s lens we see how the rivers and rain, mud and mountains, trees and trails are enmeshed in the conflict’s ebb and flow. These images place the horrors of the war in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in their ecological context, insisting that viewers contemplate the connections between human suffering and mineral extraction.

What political scientists call “the paradox of plenty” does not respect man-made borders, and, neither does the conflict in eastern DRC, which is tied to the interlinked tragedies of the Great Lakes region. The war has its roots in colonial and post-colonial politics that have spilled from one country to the next. Despite the United Nations’ efforts to broker an end to the conflict, insert its peacekeepers between the ever changing group of armed actors, and provide basic infrastructure for the steady flow of refugees, the war in eastern DRC has continued in different guises for the last twenty years, making it one of the most protracted and devastating wars of the young millennium. The millennium, however, is not as young as the majority of war’s fighters, many of whom are recruited at the onset of puberty. Bleasdale’s images are a moral alarm, a call to respond to a human tragedy that the world has largely forgotten, even as the minerals that emerge from that conflict invisibly wind their way into our daily lives.

— Alexander L. Fattal

Assistant Professor

University of California, San Diego

Copyright information: Photos are copyright © Marcus Bleasdale