Coltan is short for “columbite-tantalite,” a metallic substance that is used to make capacitors for cell phones, laptops, televisions and other devices. Approximately 80% of the world’s coltan comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where civil wars have left a devastating wake of human rights violations and environmental destruction. Buying coltan funds the rebels and their atrocities. More than two million children have died in mining-related accidents in the Congo in the past ten years.

 

Buying coltan also supports rape, a common weapon of the rebels. Because of fighting among the rebels of the Congo, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda, five million people have been killed and more than 250,000 women and children have been raped.