Pollution, corruption, and land grabbing by Chinese companies: the heavy toll of the gold rush in the DRC

In Giro, a town of 15,000 inhabitants in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, sunset brings not only cool air: it also brings lines of young men who, after a day in the gold mines, pour into the bars like in an old Western movie. One of them is Babyssy Abayogo, 21 years old, wearing a purple jacket covered in sequins and sporting a flashy chain. He hails from Isiro, 186 miles (300 kilometers) away. He says he came to Giro at the age of sixteen because there are no other ways to earn a living in his province. Working in the mine is hard and dangerous, but in good months, he manages to earn between $1,000 and $2,000. The shocking fact is that here, in one of the poorest areas of the Congo, gold promises wealth but leaves behind only dust and corruption. The gold rush is not a fairy tale of redemption; it is a trap that primarily enriches foreign companies, often Chinese, which gradually buy up the gold mining sites from local artisanal miners. Here’s the stark truth: You think gold mining brings development, but in reality, it turns poverty into a global business where those who work risk their lives and those who buy the land take everything else—including the environment. Behind the bright lights of the bars and the dream of easy money lies a system where the promise of wealth serves to perpetuate poverty, not to overcome it. Babyssy is no exception: hundreds of boys like him, and many girls, lured by the hope of a better future, end up living a life of mines, gambling, and often prostitution. Their monthly earnings, which may seem high in an extremely impoverished context, are spent immediately, with no security or rights. Meanwhile, the real wealth—control of the land and large-scale production—passes into the hands of foreign companies. And while the price of gold soars on international markets, the only thing left for the locals is dust and a devastated natural environment: contaminated water, unusable land, and no tangible alternative for the future. One fact sticks in your mind: in good times, a young person can earn $2,000 a month, but this money does not change the structure of poverty; on the contrary, it entrenches it. Now, the perspective that is almost always missing from these stories is that of the vicious cycle: the more the value of gold rises, the more pressure there is on the land, but the less say residents have over how it is used and protected. It is a downward spiral in which local communities lose power every time they think they have gained it. The bottom line: In the Congo, gold does not enrich those who mine it, but those who take it away. If this story resonates with you, on Lara Notes you can press I'm In — it's not a 'like,' it's your way of saying: This idea is now mine. And if tomorrow you tell someone about Babyssy's journey, you can mark it on Lara Notes: Shared Offline is your way of saying that that conversation mattered. This Note is based on an investigation by Le Monde—it saved you at least six minutes of reading time.