OSV News
Women and girls in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — some as young as 6 months old — endure what Dr. Denis Mukwege described as “extreme sexual violence,” their bodies used as weapons in a war fueled by the world’s insatiable demand for minerals. “People of the Congo suffer. The demand for these minerals has turned our homeland into a battlefield,” Mukwege told a crowd gathered Nov. 19 at Loyola University Maryland’s McGuire Hall in Baltimore. “Women’s bodies are used as weapons of war.” The 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner and renowned gynecological surgeon didn’t mince words about the connection between the technology in everyday devices and the suffering in his homeland. The minerals needed for artificial intelligence, smartphones, computers, electric cars and medical devices come from Congolese soil, and the cost is measured in human devastation. At Panzi Hospital, which Mukwege founded in Bukavu, he and his team treat survivors whose experiences challenge comprehension. “I dream a different future for Congo. A country where minerals fund schools, health centers and not militia. Where women walk in certainty and dignity. Where technology serves humanity rather than exploiting it. This dream is possible,” he said. Young people “can be the conscience of this new global economy.”