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Boulevard du 30 Juin, Arret VodaCom, Gombe Division, Kinshasa.
Young boys are at the center of all forms of violence and conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, most of those with guns are young people mainly boys. Most of the involved in various acts of criminality in urban areas are young boys, those involved in drug abuses are young boys.
We are also coming up with programs and activities that promote the effective protection of young boys so that they can become a solution to the community instead of being the problem.
On top of existing international days focusing on boys and men, we shall put in place a national day to reflect on how boys and men can be actors of development and the Province of Tanganyika will be our headquarters on all activities on boys and men.
On Saturday November 15th, 2025 in the after, a landslide claimed the lives of thousands of people mostly young people between 18 to 45 years near the city of Kolwezi the main city of Lualaba Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Lualaba Province is too rich in minerals and is the highest producer of various minerals in the Democratic Republic of Congo currently. Two types of actors are involved in Minerals exploitation and they include international Companies and local communities who use their energy to get what they can manage.
International Companies
International Companies which have highly invested in the Mining sector put a particular attention of the safety of all people involved and there are fewer cases of loss of people in big numbers.
Local people in Mining Sector
Local people have their own sites where they extract minerals, at their own risks, and there are no safety measures put in place.
The safety of local people in Mining Sector
This tragedy is not isolated, and has reminded us about the urgent need to ensure the protection on young people involved in local mining activities, on top of that their economic development. This tragedy is special because at least it was highly broadcasted by international and national media, however we have more other similar incidents which occur in various places where we have no media.
Economic opportunity
The Mining sector employs a big number of Congolese young people between 18 years to 50 years old, but also this sector is well known as the hub of child labor, sexual exploitation, HIV/AIDs among others.
Young people in this sector go through many challenges to the point that many have lost their lives. On roads as the travel from home to the mining sites, the roads are not safe especially because of armed groups, and security services agents especially the army officers which hunt people on the way in order to grab whatever they have. Sometimes is about bad roads, risky rivers they have to cross, lack of services on the way such as restaurants, hotels, health services and generally going through dangerous forests which host wide animals.
Most of the Mining are located in areas which are fully controlled by the Government and in which the government authority is less visible. Many families have lost young people who were the bread-winners due to diseases they got when in the mining and did not access to adequate medical treatment, because health centers do not exist or just not equipped.
On top of the landslide which directly kill many people in the Mining, we also have Cholera, Malaria and other diseases which claim lives, and also generally people do sink into deep waters and die.
Poverty among young people in Mining sector
Despite of producing minerals which are highly used in the world currently and which make so many people rich, most of these young people involved remain poor. They only get little and is not enough for them, many die in destitution as they keep hoping for luck in order to become reach. Many have abandoned their families in their villages as they went and could not afford to come back home especially when they fail to get minerals which can offer them money.
The need for mobilization
We need a strong advocacy to engage the DRC Government to make the Mining sector safe for everyone,
We need a lot of research work focusing on local mining in this sector in order to provide accurate information which can guide decisions in order to improve this field,
We need services especially health services and security services with urgent rescue team that can quickly intervene in order to save lives, and provide early warning about the risks in the Mining,
We need projects in place which may focus on organizing local people in Mining Sector in order to overcome challenges they are facing,
We need projects which may focus on poverty reduction among local people in this Mining sector,
We need interventions that can improve this mining sector and focus at the protection of people, through local investment at various levels,
We need projects that may be involved in information sharing on various activities in the Mining Sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo,
