The health impacts of Covid-19 in the DRC have been relatively low. However, a 6 month ‘lockdown’ and a slowdown in international markets, has exacerbated existing poverty levels and exposed structural weaknesses in the market, social, and political economic system – leaving already vulnerable people unprotected. This research will look at the impacts and experiences of Covid-19 on communities dependent on artisanal and small-scale (ASM) cobalt mining in the Kolwezi area of the DRC.
This is a highly politicised sector reliant on international markets, structurally intertwined with large-scale mining companies and buyers, rife with corruption, high levels of informality, low levels of food security, and significant levels of poverty-driven child labour and criminal activity.
