Human rights activist ‘forced to flee DRC’ over child cobalt mining lawsuit

A Congolese human rights activist said he was forced to flee the country with his family after being involved in a lawsuit accusing the world’s largest technology companies of killing children in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo).

In December, the Guardian announced that a group of families from the Democratic Republic of the Congo have taken landmark legal action against Apple, Google, Tesla, Microsoft, and Dell. They claim that they supported and favored the death and injuries of their children, who worked in mines that they said were associated with the technology companies.

Auguste Mutombo, Executive Director of Alternatives Plus, a Democratic Republic of the Congo-based NGO committed to improving conditions in the artisanal mining sector, helped to facilitate the field research that provided the evidence for the lawsuit.

He said that shortly after the details of the lawsuit became known, he received dozens of death threats in person and over the phone, as well as text messages from people who claimed to be members of mining cooperatives.

Mutombo said he didn’t go to the police because he didn’t trust the authorities to protect him. Instead, he moved his wife and children abroad to a safe address in Zambia and hid. He recently returned to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and said he wanted to go public to force the authorities to protect his family from further threats.

“I was expecting some problems after the lawsuit was filed, but the scale of the threats made me very afraid for the safety of my family and meant that we had to hide for the time the lawsuit was in the media,” said  mutombo.

“In the past, there have been several cases of murders of human rights activists and the lawsuit threatens the economic interests of many companies in the region. It will not stop me doing my work, but there needs to be better protection for activists.”

Siddharth Kara, a Harvard academic and anti-slavery activist, worked with Mutombo to conduct field research in cobalt mines across DRC. He said action has been taken to ensure that the families who are acting as plaintiffs in the case are protected.

““We are monitoring the situation in the DRC very closely,” he said. “The aggressive threats against our colleagues after the filing of our lawsuit is further testament to the fact that the humanity of the impoverished people of the Congo, who mine cobalt in horrendous conditions, is considered little more than an impediment to the immense profits being generated by global cobalt industry.”

The lawsuit, which was filed by human rights law firm International rights Advocates, is seeking damages for forced labour and further compensation for unjust enrichment, negligent supervision and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

It is the first time that any of the tech companies have faced such a legal challenge.

Cobalt is essential to power the rechargeable lithium batteries used in millions of products sold by Apple, Google, Dell, Microsoft and Tesla every year. The insatiable demand for cobalt, driven by desire for cheap handheld technology, has tripled in the past five years and is expected to double again by the end of 2020. More than 60% of cobalt originates in DRC, one of the poorest and most unstable countries in the world.

All the companies named in the lawsuit have said that they are committed to the responsible sourcing of minerals, which includes upholding the human rights of workers at any tier of global supply chains.