The Hidden Cost of Your iPhone: How Tech Fuels Conflict in the Congo

Visual Credit: Gilles Lambert

Your smartphone, laptop, or gaming console might seem like just another gadget, “essential” to your day-to-day life, but its components tell a much darker story—a story rooted in the abuse of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Behind the sleek aluminum casing of your iPhone lies a global struggle driven by conflict minerals, such as coltan and cobalt, essential for powering modern electronics. The tech industry’s reliance on these minerals has played a disturbing role in one of the world’s most devastating humanitarian crises.

Coltan mining in the DRC is often carried out by artisanal miners, including men, women, and even children, working under dangerous and exploitative conditions. These miners endure hazardous environments with little protection, facing frequent accidents and long hours for minimal pay.

Think about the last time you upgraded your phone. A seemingly small upgrade, such as replacing your iPhone 14 with the new iPhone 15, may not seem like a consequential event. However, that tiny upgrade fuels a massive demand for coltan, tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold—3TG minerals crucial for electronic devices. The DRC holds over 64 per cent of the world’s coltan reserves, which is harvested and used to make the smartphone or laptop you’re using right now. Once refined, it becomes a heat-resistant powder capable of storing electric charges, making it indispensable for devices we used in our everyday lives.

Yet, in the DRC, these valuable resources are the root of violence rather than commodities.  Armed militias have seized control of many mining sites forcing locals, including children, into brutal labour. Over six million people were pronounced dead due to conflicts linked to mineral extraction, more than five million were displaced, and thousands of homes were destroyed. Profits from this shadow economy are then used to purchase weapons and sustain ongoing conflicts.

In mining towns, workers face life-threatening conditions: collapsed tunnels, toxic exposure, and exploitation are just some of the daily realities for those extracting the minerals behind our modern conveniences. Every touch on your smartphone's screen is a reminder of the human cost embedded within its circuits.

While coltan often dominates the conversation about conflict minerals, cobalt is equally critical. Essential for lithium-ion batteries, cobalt powers everything from smartphones to electric vehicles. A single smartphone battery contains about seven grams of cobalt, while an electric vehicle battery can require over 13 kilograms. As demand for these devices rises, cobalt consumption is projected to reach 222,000 tons by 2025, tripling since 2010.

Mining for these minerals in the DRC is deeply exploitative, with men typically assigned physically demanding tasks, while women and children often undertake hazardous roles, such as crawling into mine shafts and sorting minerals. Despite the DRC’s cobalt exports totaling $4.44 billion annually, the average Congolese worker earns just $449 per year—not even half the cost of a new iPhone. Driven by extreme poverty, over 50,000 children work in hazardous mining sites for less than two dollars a day. Some suffer fatal consequences as a result of tunnels collapsing, while others face life-altering injuries.

Corporate responses have fallen short in addressing these concerns. In 2019, a federal class-action lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C. accused Apple, Dell, Google, Microsoft, and Tesla of profiting from forced child labour in the DRC. The lawsuit claimed these companies "knowingly benefited from and aided and abetted the cruel and brutal use of young children" in mining cobalt used in lithium-ion batteries—the power source behind modern electronics. In November 2021, the case was dismissed on the basis that the plaintiffs failed to establish a direct causal link between the tech companies’ actions and the alleged abuses. This once again demonstrates the world’s complicity in the horrors placed upon Congo.

Laws like the U.S. Dodd-Frank Act, passed by congress in 2010, requires tech companies to  disclose their use of conflict minerals if they’re “necessary to the functionality or production of a product.” But instead of promoting ethical sourcing, many companies have withdrawn entirely from the region, opting instead for materials from countries like Morocco and Australia, leaving miners jobless and exacerbating poverty. Meanwhile, European regulations have pushed for better corporate accountability, but enforcement is extremely weak with corporate social responsibility reports often revealing progress that is too slow or incomplete. This leaves major gaps in ethical tech supply chains.

So, where do University students fit into this global crisis? You hold immense power. Awareness drives change. Consumer advocacy campaigns have pushed companies like Apple and Intel to adopt ethical sourcing initiatives, such as Apple’s Conflict Minerals Program and Intel’s partnerships for conflict-free sourcing. However, transparency challenges persist due to issues like smuggling and poor enforcement, highlighting the need for continued industry accountability.

Individual choices matter. If enough consumers demand transparency, companies will be forced to prioritize ethical sourcing. Students can advocate for stronger policies by signing petitions, joining campus activism groups, and raising awareness through social media.

But individual action isn’t enough. Advocacy for stronger supply-chain laws and support for conflict-free tech policies can also create industry-wide change. Lastly, pushing for universities to ensure that the electronics they purchase for the use of their campus meets conflict-free certification standards would be a crucial step towards an ethical use of technology.

So, next time you scroll through Instagram or take notes on your laptop, think about the journey that brought that device into your hands. Behind every text, email, and photo is a chain of events stretching across the globe. By staying informed, demanding transparency, and supporting ethical tech, you can help break the cycle of exploitation—and build a world where technology connects people without costing lives.

Lina Rhissa (she/her) is a second-year Political Studies and History student and an Editorial Board Member at Political Digest.