When Leopold died in 1909, the Congo remained in Belgian hands where it continued to be used as a plaything for white supremacy. When World War I broke out in 1914, more than 300,000 Congolese were forced to fight against other Blacks from the German controlled colony of Ruanda-Urundi. During World War II when Nazi Germany captured Belgium, the Congo served as a source of income for the Belgian government in exile.

All the while, the Belgian government forced millions into the mines and fields to support their nation. A system of “mandatory cultivation” (cultures obligatoires) was introduced that forced the people to grow cash crops for export, even as they starved on their own land.

By 1961, the Congolese people had reached their breaking point. Armed and political resistance movements rose up to overthrow a century of slavery and Belgian rule.

Patrice Lumumba, a martyr of Pan-Africanism, became the first Prime Minister of the new nation. He quickly set about breaking the yoke of Belgian influence and allied the Congo with Russia at the height of the Cold War.

But the victory of the people over white supremacy would be short lived. No sooner had Patrice Lumumba risen to power than he was assassinated in a United States backed coup.

Following a now familiar modus operandi, an agent in the form of Mobutu Sese Seko was used to overthrow Lumumba’s government. lumumba was captured, beaten, and forced to eat copies of his own speeches — all in front of the press. After being tortured for three weeks, Lumumba was executed by a firing squad under the command of a Belgian mercenary named Julien Gat.

The people once again rose up, and peasants, workers, students and civil servants rallied behind Lumumba’s lieutenants, most of whom had regrouped to establish a National Liberation Council (CNL) in October 1963 .

Mobutu — who returned the Congo to Belgian rule in exchange for their support — waged all out war in the country. He went about publicly executing members of the pro-Lumuba revolution in open-air spectacles witnessed by tens of thousands of people. By 1970, nearly all potential threats to his authority had been smashed. In that same year, King Baudouin of Belgium made a state visit to Kinshasa to congratulate Mobutu on crushing the rebellion.

Mobutu would rape the Congo with the blessing of the west — robbing the nation of around $2 Billion — until his increasingly hostile rhetoric toward his white overlords would cause the west to seek another proxy. They found such a man in the form of Laurent Kabila, who they used to overthrow Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997.

Between both Mobutu and Kabila, not only would Congo become the concentration camp of the world — it would become the rape capital as well.

No woman in the path of the violence was spared. 7 year olds were raped by government troops in public. Pregnant women were disemboweled. Genital mutilation was commonplace, as was forced incest and cannibalism. The crimes were never punished, and never will be.

Laurent Kabila maintained the status quo until he was killed by his bodyguard in 2001. Since then, his son and present day President Joseph Kabila has held on to power in violation of the Constitution of the Congo Free State. He has murdered protesters and opposition party members, and has continued to obey the will of the west while his people endure unspeakable hells.

Why The World Is Silent

It is obvious why Belgium and her allies are silent about the situation in the Congo — they are both the cause and the beneficiary of the genocide there.

But what of the other nations of the world, including the Congo’s neighbors?

At best, the United States is implicit in maintaining the status quo in the Congo. At worst, the U.S. is shares direct responsibility for it. Under Mobutu Sese Seko, the U.S was the third largest donor of aid (after Belgium and France), and Mobutu was on great terms with Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush.

Things started to look up during the Obama Administration. The former President signed provisions into the Dodd-Frank law that required companies to disclose the origins of the minerals they use. When the law was passed, trade groups representing major U.S. companies tried to block the rule through a federal lawsuit. When they failed, those companies continued to purchase conflict minerals from third parties.By shining a spotlight on supply chains, it would put pressure on companies to invest in removing conflict minerals from their products.

Microchips, cell phones, and semiconductors all contain minerals sourced from Congo — making companies like Intel, Apple, HP, and IBM culpable for funding the militias that control the mines.