WASHINGTON, Apr 1 (IPS) – The world’s mass consumption of cell phones, laptops and other electronics fuels widespread sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to a new study released Wednesday by the non-profit Enough Project that echoes what many human rights activists and humanitarian workers have been saying for years.

The paper, “Can You Hear Congo Now? Cell Phones, Conflict Minerals, and the Worst Sexual Violence in the World,” details how “conflict minerals” that are mined in the war-torn DRC are sold by rebel groups to purchase arms, and serve as a direct cause of widespread sexual violence in the war-torn country.

“The conflict in eastern DRC – the deadliest since World War II – is fuelled in significant part by a multi-million-dollar trade in minerals,” the report states. “Armed groups generate an estimated 144 million dollars each year by trading four main minerals: the ores that produce the metals tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold.”

Working with other non-governmental organisations, the Enough Project has spent the last year researching the supply chains that link these conflict minerals to many of the world’s most demanded electronics, including cell phones, portable music players and computers.

DRC has suffered from violence brought on by the “resource curse” for well over a century. Over the past decade, various militias and military units that have dominated conflict-ridden areas of the country have vied for control of mineral-rich areas and their inhabitants in part by using sexual violence.

According to the study, 1,100 rape cases are reported each month, the world’s highest rate of sexual violence against women and girls. 

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