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
Gold miners pack up in the evening to return to their camp. 2004
A child gold miner in Watsa, northeastern Congo. 2004
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. 2006
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 Approximately three million people live in the diamond town, where most agriculture has ceased and been replaced by the diamond rush. 2005
Soldiers of the UPC militia wait for orders in Bule, northeastern Congo. 2003
A child soldier with the Mayi-Mayi militia waits in Kanyabyonga as CNDP rebels advance. He was recruited while young men in the area were being abducted by the rebel forces. He didn’t want to be forced to fight, so he volunteered with the Mayi-Mayi. 2008
A child soldier rides back to his base in Ituri district, northeastern Congo. 2003
Refugees flee south after a rebel attack on Bule and Fataki, northeastern Congo. 2003
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
Displaced people in Kiwanja village wait for food handouts from the World Food Program. 2008
Displaced people make camp in Goma after fleeing fighting in Karuba and Mushake villages. A battle rages between government forces and General Nkunda’s rebels in Karuba, North Kivu province. 2008
Opangi Molati, five, in Tchomia camp after being displaced by nearby fighting. Around 30,000 displaced people live in this area with limited supplies and virtually no international help. 2006
An early-morning religious service in the Gety displaced camp, just days before the historic 2006 elections. 2006
Displaced people bring back water to their camp in Goma after fleeing fighting in Karuba and Mushake. Fighting rages between government forces and rebels in Karuba, North Kivu province.
A destroyed pharmacy in the bush, ransacked and torched by militia a month earlier, is testament to the health crisis in Congo. The lack of access to health care is the main cause of death in Congo’s brutal conflict, which has killed over 5.4 million people. 2006
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
Displaced people are treated in the Catholic mission near Gety camp. The mission hospital was looted by government soldiers during fighting. 2006
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
Police brace themselves for a riot in front of Jean-Pierre Bemba’s residence. 2006
The body of a government soldier lies in the road several kilometres outside Goma, killed in a fire-fight against CNDP rebels during the night. The dead are often left in the roads as a message to the government troops and the local community. 2008
Displaced people fish in the evening on the Congo River outside Nyonga, Katanga province. 2005
The funeral of ten-month-old Mapenzi Boloma 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
The family of Androzo Masumbuko, forty, 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
Mapenzi Boloma, ten-months-old, died from diarrhoea and vomiting several days after arriving in the Gety camp. She was one of eighteen people who died that day, just before Congo’s historic elections. 2006
The coffin arrives for the burial of eight-month-old Sakura Lisi, the daughter of a gold miner in Mongbwalu, northeastern Congo. She died from anaemia brought on by malaria. 2004
The washing of the body at the burial of the eight-month-old Sakura Lisi, the daughter of a gold miner in Mongbwalu, northeastern Congo. 2004
The burial of the eight-month-old Sakura Lisi, the daughter of a gold miner in Mongbwalu, northeastern Congo. 2004
