The world’s most neglected emergency, according to Jan Egeland, the U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator, is the on-going tragedy in the Congo, where 6 million to 7 million have died since 1996 as a consequence of invasions and wars sponsored by Western powers trying to gain control of the region’s mineral wealth. At stake is control of natural resources that are sought by U.S. corporations: diamonds; tin; copper; gold; cobalt, an element essential to nuclear, chemical, aerospace and defense industries; and, more significantly, coltan and niobum, two minerals necessary for production of cell phones and other high-tech electronics. Eighty percent of the world’s colton reserves are found in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Niobium is another high-tech mineral with a similar story.

The high-tech boom of the 1990’s cause the price of coltan to skyrocket to nearly $300 per pound. In 1996, U.S.-sponsored Rwandan and Ugandan forces entered eastern DRC. By 1998, they had seized control and moved into strategic mining areas. The Rwandan army was soon making $20 million or more a month from coltan mining. Though the price of coltan has since fallen, Rwanda maintains its monopoly on coltan and the coltan trade in DRC. Reports or rampant human-rights abuses pour out of this mining region.

Coltan makes its way out of the mines to trading posts where foreign traders buy the mineral and ship it abroad, mostly through Rwanda. Firms with the capability turn coltan into the coveted tantalum powder, and then sell the magic powder to Nokia, Motorola, Compaq, Sony and other manufacturers for use in cell phones and other products.

Yet as mining in the Congo by Western companies proceeds at an unprecedented rate—some $6million in raw cobalt alone exiting DRC daily—multinational mining companies rarely get mentioned in human-rights reports.