Congolese children swap hammers for books

Food comes before education for many, said Roger-Claude Liwanga, an expert in the exploitation of children in Congo's artisanal mines, of Emory University in the United States. Photo: Filepic/AFP

Squeezed on to benches and on the floor, the Congolese students of Kipushi Primary School did not complain that they only had a few, battered textbooks to share – just down the road, hundreds of less fortunate children were working in open-pit mines.

Enrolment at the school – named after the town of 174,000 people, which is dominated by its copper, zinc and cobalt mines – has risen by 75% to 1,400 students since the Democratic Republic of Congo introduced free primary education in 2019.