Simon Marijsse, Robert Carrubba, and Lutula Kaminkya The intermittent hum of the outboard motor propelling the packed wooden sloop laden with people and products masks the ever-present gurgling of the river. The current has carried the boat with its passengers and packages for 4 hours along a tributary of the Congo River in the eastern Kivu province. Many traveled by moto- or van- taxi and on foot for at least three days from Bukavu, the border town on Lake Kivu between Rwanda and DR Congo, about 200 kilometers as the crow flies. Most are either merchants or miners. A...
Un projet par / A project by: Robert Carrubba & Cintia Garai / Wildlife Messengers Photographie / Photographs: Robert Carrubba Film: Cintia Garai & Robert Carrubba Ce film et l’article photo ont été réalisés avec le soutien du Rainforest Journalism Fund à travers le Pulitzer Center. This film and the photo-article were made with the support of the Rainforest Journalism Fund through the Pulitzer Center. Ecoguard, Lébon Mabeka Kunafe, from the rapid response team, sits contemplatively on the stump of a tree that was illegally cut down in the 2018 deforestation incident in the high-altitude zone of the park. This...
Words: Ben Radley Photographs: Robert Carrubba Français au-dessous d’anglais. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo tens of thousands of rural families have experienced a long-term decline in their on-farm subsistence capacity due to government policy, war and demographic pressures. After agriculture, artisanal mining is now the second most important livelihood in the eastern DRC despite the inherent dangers of the work. Between 2013 and 2015, the International Peace Information Service (IPIS) visited 1,615 artisanal mines across the region, recording the presence of 239,700 miners. Around 80 percent of these miners were working in gold mines, and around two-thirds...