AP Photo Shows Hundreds at Congo Gold Mine, Exposing Child Labor and Environmental Damage
Updated
Updated · The Associated Press · Aug 21
AP Photo Shows Hundreds at Congo Gold Mine, Exposing Child Labor and Environmental Damage
1 articles · Updated · The Associated Press · Aug 21
Summary
An AP photograph from Iga-Barrière in eastern Congo captures the scale of artisanal gold mining, showing large crowds working in mud and polluted water on a stripped hillside.
Dieudonne Dirole said he framed the image to reveal more than one scene at once—child miners, women and men at work, and the environmental damage tied to their dependence on gold mining.
Local mine managers initially resisted filming, Dirole said, because the site was using children and women despite laws meant to protect children; access came only under close supervision by an assigned agent.
The image was made during reporting on mobile gold miners in Ituri province, whose movement through remote areas is complicating efforts to track and slow an Ebola outbreak spreading at unprecedented speed.