The Insurmountable Causes of Child Trafficking in The DRC

Children are among the most vulnerable in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with UNICEF reports describing the staggering rise of cases in sexual violence against children since 2022, reaching over 45,000 recorded cases in 2024, with the numbers likely being much higher due to the phenomenon of under-reporting, caused by social stigma and fear. Violence against children in the DRC is most commonly found in cities like North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri, most notably areas that are currently affected by intense conflict. 

Victims of child trafficking are subject to a range of abuses. Where mining serves as the biggest business in the DRC, abuses and exploitation follow. Children are forced or coerced into labor, mostly into illegal mining including that of cobalt, copper, diamonds, gold, etc. The ongoing conflict has also played a major role involving the recruitment and use of children as soldiers by non-state armed groups. Not only has it led to mass displacement, further increasing child vulnerability, but has also heightened the cases of sexual violence and sex trafficking within these areas. 

Children in the DRC (TheBorgenProject)

The primary factors that contribute to causing child trafficking in the DRC can be identified as poverty, conflict and corruption, all intertwining to create the perfect, fertile ground for seeds of abuse and exploitation to grow and consequently flourish. Thus, it is quite a predicament to determine whether these causes are actually susceptible to change, as their interconnected nature makes it difficult to combat one problem without running into the others.

To understand why the current conditions nourish the phenomenon of child trafficking in the DRC to occur with such impunity, it is imperative that we analyse how it has escalated to this point, in doing so we must view its colonial history.

The DR of Congo (then named the Congo Free State) was designated as King Leopolds II personal property in the Berlin Conference (1884-1885), where initial exploitation consisted of rubber, used for the booming tire business, with the exploitation of ivory and minerals appearing later on. If quotas were not reached Congolese faced punishments of ineffable horrors, including amputation and maiming. Belgium continued extracting resources, primarily copper, diamonds, and uranium, from 1908, up until the DRCs independence in 1960. In 1965, five years after the DRC gained independence, General Mobutu Sese Seko took power. He maintained it for another thirty years, yet these decades faced growing corruption, with the General starting a pattern of internal exploitation of the nation's resources for the benefit of the few.

Punishments for failing to meet rubber quotas (A Forgotten Genocide: The Congo Free State).

His last years in mandate were brutal. The 1994 Rwandan Genocide saw around one million Tutsis refugees fleeing persecution from the Hutus into the DRC, marking it as the beginning of destabilization in the Eastern region of the DRC. When fleeing perpetrators continued their violence, it triggered the First Congo War (1996-1997), with the Rwandan government, the Ugandan army and rebel militias within Congo, led by Laurent Kabila, waging war against the DRC, who was accused of backing the Hutu perpetrators. Eventually Kabila replaced the General, but past problems did not disappear. Kabila began aiding groups that went against Rwanda, triggering another war (1998-2003) and continuing the vicious cycle of conflict.

Poverty, in all its forms, remains a deeply rooted cause of the majority of the problems that the DRC currently faces. The country is situated over $24 trillion in wealth in minerals, yet it remains one of the poorest and most underdeveloped nations in the world. The cycle of exploitation dates back to its colonial days, yet a pattern of external exploitation still remains in the form of neocolonialism. From every corner of the nation, there has always been an entity looking to grab a piece of its natural resources, ultimately leaving little for the people to actually benefit from. 

A good example is the Sicomines deal between the DRC and Chinese state-owned enterprises, which offered China long-term resources in exchange for its commitment to build $3 billion worth of infrastructure (later raised to $7 billion after renegotiations). However, what seemed like the deal of the century in truth saw slow progress from China's part and little gains for the DRC. Cases like these, involving poor management and unfair deals, contribute to a significant portion of revenue from the DRCs lucrative industries being lost, or rather directed elsewhere. 

The average Congolese faces low income, food insecurity, poor living conditions, little access to healthcare, and so on. According to the National Library of Medicine, “In 2018, it was estimated that 73% of the Congolese population, equaling 60 million people, lived on less than $1.90 a day (the international poverty rate). As such, about 1 out of 6 people living in extreme poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) live in DRC. With a GDP per capita of only $753, the DRC is 1 of the poorest countries in the world with half the country’s population below the poverty line.”

The escalating humanitarian crisis in the DRC (Support Children in Crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Donate to UNICEF).

Poverty goes hand in hand with vulnerability, particularly in the case of children. Not only does this leave children in street situations, but the inability to provide proper education, due to high costs, leaves a child vulnerable to risky job offers, and more desperate to find sources of income. Reports from Read, Debate, Engage describe fraudulent methods and tactics used by traffickers, such as appearing as employment agencies to “lure victims with promises of jobs or education”. They even go as far as to create ads, both online and in newspapers, to reach more possible victims. Additionally, many families in the DRC sell off their children to marriages, for rewards such as dowries or simply because they are unable to sustain a life for them. 

A publication produced by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the International Labour Organization (ILO), and Walk Free, included key findings. It stated that one in five Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)were subject to slave related abuse in the DRC, with 90% of the labour being forced by armed groups or forces. Conflict is the main driver of displacement in the DRC, heightening vulnerability, which militias, forces, and armed groups take advantage of to traffick and abuse individuals. This includes forced labour, sexual exploitation, and recruitment. 

Conflict in the DRC is most prevalent in the North and South Kivu, Ituri and the Kasai region. The Kivu Security Tracker has counted 122 armed groups active and in conflict with each other. Some worth mentioning are the FARDC and M23. 

The Armed Forces of the DR of the Congo (FARDC) has been both directly involved in child trafficking, recruiting and supplying children with arms, and indirectly involved by collaborating with militias who are widely known to commit abuses against children, most notoriously with the Wazalendo and the Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR). As stated by the 2025 Trafficking in Persons Report: Democratic Republic of the Congo, “Congolese National Army (FARDC) officials continued collaborating with and providing material support to armed groups despite widespread reports they unlawfully recruited and used child soldiers, including sometimes forcibly.”

Children recruited as soldiers in the DRC (ICC awards DR Congo child soldiers $10m in damages).

The March 23 Movement (M23) is an alleged Rwandan backed armed group active in the DRC. According to the U.S. Department of Labor Reports, “...Many violations were attributed to the Rwanda-backed non-state armed group March 23 Movement, which recruited children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with false promises of employment, transported them to Rwanda and Uganda for military training, and then redeployed them into combat after returning them to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”

Though it is undeniable that external forces have vastly contributed to developing these issues, the lack of transparency and pure corruption within the government has continuously impeded any possibility of advancement towards justice and improvement. High levels of corruption are encountered within the mining sector, in the form of weak regulation of supply chains, activities, and conditions inside the mines. In addition, the government has been repeatedly accused of missing funds and accepting bribes to ignore illicit mining operations involving the employment of children. The government seldom published information related to labor enforcement data or reports on child labor, demonstrating the lack of transparency and inability to provide up-to-date, crucial information. 

Despite noting some efforts to combat child trafficking, the 2025 Trafficking in Persons Report also highlights the following, “... the government investigated significantly fewer trafficking cases, initiated fewer prosecutions, and identified fewer victims. Corruption and complicity in trafficking crimes remained significant concerns, which contributed to ongoing impunity for traffickers.”

Decades of conflict, mismanagement, severe violence, and poor living conditions have facilitated the ability of traffickers to recruit children for forced labour. Despite efforts being made by various local and international NGOs and institutions that dedicate themselves to providing vulnerable children with the protection and care they need, it has not been done without recurring obstacles and even new problems, such as international fund cuts, in turn leaving many of these organisations unable to continue their projects. Facing each dilemma individually is nearly impossible, even more so when there are both internal and external constraints. Truthfully, there are solutions; however to obtain these solutions human will, compassion, and much less greed is needed.

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