Africa Eye

Blood in the Earth: Life and Death in Congo's Coltan Mines (2025x13)

Air date: Oct 26, 2025

In a village nestled in the mountains of the Democratic Republic of Congo, everyone is looking for an answer to their problems. A teacher hopes to find it in educating his pupils for a better life, a policeman hopes to find it in establishing order, and a miner hopes to find it in coltan, an essential element used in manufacturing electronics. The mineral is both a blessing and a curse to the locals. It may have brought wealth to some, but it has also brought a decades long war between numerous local groups backed by international players. For many miners their dreams remain frustratingly underground, seemingly just out of reach. But for one miner can this “grey gold” now bring his family back together?