Black money

A charcoal market, Goma. In an environment where the rebel groups have established a shadow state and economy in a political economy framed by war, charcoal as a necessity is traded every day in Goma, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Traders are aware of illegal charcoal from Virunga National Park, a UN world heritage site. It is this charcoal trading that allows them to barely survive; it then bites back with violence that is financed by the very same things. In contrast to existing scholarship on internationally traded high value commodities and conflict, for the first time, my initial research has found that charcoal as a locally traded low value good is funding and sustaining the conflict in North Eastern DRC. Rebel groups in collaboration with the Congolese army and local farmers generate ‘black money’ from this trade as a means for survival.