By RFPosted on 31-08-2019Modified on 31-08-2019 at 19:31

In the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the African Development Bank is expected to pay US $ 80 million to remove more than 14,500 miners from mining sites. These children and young people are mainly used for cleaning and transporting minerals. This project to support the well-being of children used in the cobalt supply chain will be implemented in the provinces of Lualaba and Upper Katanga. The first stage of the project's launch will take place in the mining town of Kolwezi, the cobalt capital of the world.

More than 14,000 children and young people are still present in the mining sites of Upper Katanga and Lualaba . The numbers are worrying. For some structures, in Kolwezi, there would be exaggeration but the Lualaba civil society ensures that hundreds of children are still working in the mines .

" These kids are still here. They work. They go in search of survival. They are sometimes encouraged by their parents. Some just go for fun to follow the movement of others, "says Shadrack Mukad, spokesman for civil society.

For his part, Luc Assosa, of the international NGO Pact Congo, ensures that a work of identification of children and their families will be done in order to update the statistics.

" We will do an activity to identify the number of children who are involved in the work of artisanal mines, but also the mapping of artisanal mining sites on which we find children, " he says.

A few years ago, projects of the same kind were carried out in both provinces but the phenomenon persists. Alice Mirimo, Executive Director of the National Fund for Promotion and Social Services, points out the peculiarity of this new project.

" First of all, there will be social reconversion for these children. They will leave the mines to go to school. Parents, who are mostly young, are going to be taken for agriculture, "she says.

This project is expected to last five years.

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