York University ANTH 1120 Essay Mineral Resources and the Warfare in Sierra Leone and Congo

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Mineral Resources and the Warfare in Sierra Leone and Congo This essay offers an insight on the ongoing conflict of the mineral resources in African countries in Sierra Leone and in the Democratic R... epublic of Congo (DRC). The cultivation of mineral resources has caused violent conflicts among the militia groups by using their threats which have delayed the development of its social and economic growth among countries in Sierra Leone and Congo. Mineral resources are traded illegally and that they are financially used to support for civil wars in these countries. Due to the abundance of mineral resources in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the militia groups are beginning to expand their control over territories in order to increase the production of mining for more of these resources. They rely on mineral resources such as Coltans and Diamonds are the most commonly used to increase its profit and to increase its military expenditures in countries in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Both countries of Sierra Leone and Congo had corrupted government leaders that are FodaySankoh and Mobutu SeseSeko, who’ve used these minerals to increase their military forces and that they’ve did this by oppressing civilians to extract them (Opponget al. 2008:52). The militias have taken advantage by gaining access over the state, in which it has corrupted the state’s power and that its economy have degraded by the conflictover minerals resources such as diamonds and coltan. They acquire these minerals by oppressing the labourers to extract these mineral resources, in which these violent conflicts were created and that it has caused these countries to be insecure and threatened by the militia groups. There also has been a vast competition among diamonds by militias and the government, in which it creates instability since these scarce minerals appear as a highly concentrated form of wealth for them when traded with companies (Tamm 2002:5). Since the beginning of the 1990’s, a militia group known as the [Show More]

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