Project

Congo's Conflict: Profit and Loss

The war beginning in 1998 that pitted the armies of Congo, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola against those of Uganda and Rwanda induced the largest humanitarian disaster since World War II, with an estimated four million Congolese lives lost. Congo's first national elections since 1965 have taken place, but true peace and democracy remain elusive goals.

The population is continuously caught in a deadly whirlpool fueled by weapons transfers, infrastructure breakdown, ineffective leadership and insecurity. Mvemba Phezo Dizolele traveled through Congo in June and July to cover one of the most under-reported conflicts in the world today. His reports on the elections, small arms trade and the role of Coltan in the ongoing conflict have appeared in The New York Times, The St. Louis Post Dispatch and on PBS.

In Search of Congo's Coltan

Bukavu is perched high above Lake Kivu, gently encroaching on the placid body of water between Rwanda and Congo. Once known as the pearl of Congo because of its beautiful climate and mountains, the Bukavu I found last summer barely resembles the famed city I heard about as a child.

Dizolele interviewed by Dick Gordon on the "The Story"

Last week, Congo installed the winner of its first multi-party presidential election in 40 years: Joseph Kabila is now the leader of the war-torn country.

Mvemba Dizolele describes the Congolese response to their historic elections as 'giddy'. Mvemba is an American citizen who was born and raised in Congo. He talks with Dick about his detention as a young man by the dictator who had employed his father, why he became an American…and what it was like to encounter a pygmy taller than he is.

How to End the Deadliest War in Africa

When Nelson Mandela was released from jail in 1990 and during the subsequent 1994 independence and elections in South Africa, the United States displayed a dramatic commitment to the democratic movement in Africa that has not been in evidence since. That seemed to change, however, with the U.S.-sanctioned arrest of Liberia's former president, Charles Taylor, on March 29, 2006, for human rights violations in neighboring Sierra Leone.

Millions Have Died for Our Cell Phones

The Mushangi area is nested high in eastern Congo's mountains, far from the capital, Kinshasa, on the border with Rwanda. The hills are barren, stripped of their lush vegetation both by erosion and by a seemingly never-ending conflict. While the rest of Congo prepares for the second round of presidential elections scheduled for Oct. 29, the people of Mushangi worry about one thing: survival.