We're deep in the heart of it now.

I don't know how much water we have.

We haven't eaten in a really long time.

And my glasses are fogging up because it's so hot.

And I can't see.

And I'm walking in the mud.

I don't know, man.

I think this might be the stupidest

thing I've ever done.

The Democratic Republic of Congo.

It's one of the poorest countries in the world, and

thanks to insanely complicated mix of politics, armed

conflict, and corruption, it's also one of the most

under-reported.

It also happens to be home to a nondescript black rock known

as coltan, a vital ingredient in the production of nearly

every cell phone and computer on the planet.

Without coltan, our technology-driven lives would

come to a screeching halt.

And Congo has 80% of the world's supply.

Congo also has cassiterite, gold, and a slew of other

minerals that make the world go round.

Now, you'd think that having so much of the stuff would be

good for Congo, but the reality is far from the case.

There's a reason they're called conflict minerals.

[SHOUTING]

SUROOSH ALVI: Since the mid 1990s, armed groups have used

these minerals to fund a series of fantastically

complicated and horrifically violent wars.

MALE SPEAKER: We have to kill them.

We have to kill them.

SUROOSH ALVI: And as the tech boom drove up the price of

these minerals, violence skyrocketed.

Slaves to technology that we are, we had see for ourselves

where these minerals were coming from and what these

rebels were fighting for.

MALE SPEAKERS: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

SUROOSH ALVI: So together with my cameraman Jake and producer

Jason, we hopped on a plane and flew to Congo.

Our first stop was Kinshasa.

To say that Congo's natural resources have been more of a

curse than a blessing would be an understatement.

Conrad described this place as "the vilest scramble for loot

that has ever disfigured the human conscience." That was

written in the 1800s, right around the time that Belgian

colonists were stripping the country of its rich supply of

ivory and rubber, killing nearly half the population in

the process.

In the 1960s, it was the United States that was after

Congo's cobalt for its Cold War fighter jets, leading to

its support for a dictator who renamed the country Zaire and

embezzled billions of dollars.

MOBUTO SESE SEKO: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

SUROOSH ALVI: Today, it's the global demand for technology

that is inadvertently fueling the conflict in Congo.

The statistics we read are staggering.

Five million people have died in the Congo because of this

conflict since the mid '90s until about 2007.

It's a huge number.

The most since any war since World War II.

The government in Kinshasa says that the war is over, but

Kinshasa is a long way from the jungles of eastern Congo,

where most of the rebel groups and the minerals that finance

them are located.

So we needed to go east to find out what was

really going on.

One thing that had been drilled into our heads before

we came to Congo was that you do not fly

on Congolese airlines.

This is a country whose aircraft are banned from

European airspace.

Last year, a crash that killed 20 people was the result of a

crocodile escaping from a passenger's carry on luggage.

But with Goma being over 1,000 miles away, we didn't have

much of a choice.

And as it turned out, that flight would be the most

comfortable experience of the days to come.

One thing we've noticed since we came here is that there are

fires burning everywhere in Congo.

I guess they're just burning their garbage.

But it kind of feels apocalyptic at times.

Watch out.

We're in Goma.

It's in eastern Congo, right on the Rwandan border.

This has been the epicenter of the conflict since 1994.

It's also the center for humanitarian aid.

There are 51 different international organizations

based here.

As you can see, there's UN guys everywhere around us.

It's kind of chaotic.

We're also pretty close to the mines where coltan is

extracted from, and we're going to go check that out.

When we got to Goma, we met up with Tim Freccia, a veteran

crisis and conflict photographer who has worked in

Congo for years.

He told us that we were under-dressed for our trip to

the cold mountain mining town of Numbi, so we went shopping.

I've got a nice polo here.

I got a Minnesota Golden Gophers hoodie.

Jake got a great Carhartt.

But I think this might be a strong look when I'm going to

interview the militia.

Some Wu wear.

The only problem is it's fucking disgusting.

Is it pretty good?

MALE SPEAKER: Yeah.

SUROOSH ALVI: Yeah, you like it?

MALE SPEAKER: I like it.

SUROOSH ALVI: He likes it.

We got our outfits.

So we're going to visit the mines today, the Numbi mines.

It's where they extract coltan from.

HOREB BUJAMBO: And cassiterite and tourmaline, and some other

precious stones.

SUROOSH ALVI: This is Horeb.

He's our new buddy.

He's our new best friend.

He knows everyone.

He's a bit of a celebrity in these parts.

HOREB BUJAMBO: [SPEAKING FRENCH]

SUROOSH ALVI: He's got a TV show.

What's your show called?

HOREB BUJAMBO: Monusco Realites.

It's a kind of Congo reality.

SUROOSH ALVI: Is it safe to say that you're a Congolese

reality TV star?

HOREB BUJAMBO: I'm a celebrity for many Congolese, just

because I tell them the stories which they--

SUROOSH ALVI: They don't know.

HOREB BUJAMBO: They don't know.

I tell stories about Congo.

SUROOSH ALVI: I've driven a lot of treacherous roads

before, but this one seems to be the worst.

HOREB BUJAMBO: We are still going up.

Up and up.

SUROOSH ALVI: Oh my god, I can't even look right now.

This is completely fucked.

HOREB BUJAMBO: Yeah, Yeah.

I saw vehicles, they went down.

SUROOSH ALVI: Fall down the hill?

HOREB BUJAMBO: It's not a safe road, yeah.

SUROOSH ALVI: We figured that out.

HOREB BUJAMBO: Despite the beauty of this place.

SUROOSH ALVI: Yeah, it's beautiful.

HOREB BUJAMBO: Yeah.

SUROOSH ALVI: What if we all just push him out?

Straight out?

Nothing's working this way.

He's not getting anywhere.

MALE SPEAKERS: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

SUROOSH ALVI: Where did all these people appear from?

Like, we're in the middle of nowhere.

I thought you were kidding when you said

hiring local labor.

They just conveniently had a shovel, as well.

MALE SPEAKER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

SUROOSH ALVI: Like, as soon as we sank into the mud hole, the

kids were all like, thumbs up, we got him.

Now they're all here, and they're going to work until

they get us out, and they're gonna get paid.

MALE SPEAKERS: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

SUROOSH ALVI: Yes, yes.

We finally got out.

But before long, we got stuck again.

And again.

And again.

Until one thing became very clear.

We were not making it back to Goma anytime soon.

It looks like we're probably going to end up sleeping at

the mines tonight, which is a bit odd.

I can't believe connecting two land cruisers

with seatbelts worked.

They're saying we have to hurry because it's going to

rain again soon, and if we don't get past this patch of

red earth, we're going to be stuck sleeping here.

When we finally got to Numbi, we had to smooth talk the

local officials into showing us the mines.

So these are all the powerful dudes of the town.

Yet another negotiation.

Bonjour, Suroosh.

MALE SPEAKER: [INAUDIBLE].

SUROOSH ALVI: Nice to meet you.

[FRENCH].

This way.

In what would become a running theme for the rest of our

trip, the locals said the mines were just over there

around the bend.

And then we would get over there and around the bend,

they were just over there, and over the hill.

Like a quick two kilometers.

Holy fuck.

I'm about to pass out, Jake.

Hey Jake, how many people are working?

JAKE BURGHART: None.

SUROOSH ALVI: Really?

JAKE BURGHART: They've all gone home.

We have to come back tomorrow.

SUROOSH ALVI: The mine had no miners.

It was completely empty.

The locals told us that this mine in particular is owned by

a member of Congo Senate who lives in Kinshasa, and that

his miners pull 15 kilos of coltan out of it every day.

At $30 a kilo, that's about $13,000 a month, a lot of

money in a country where most of the people survive on less

than $1 a day.

And while the senator gets the big rocks, the bottom feeders

get by on what washes down the stream.

So we got totally set up.

Basically when we pulled into town.

MALE SPEAKER: Lower, lower, lower your voice.

SUROOSH ALVI: Basically we got totally set up.

When we pulled into town, alarm bells went off.

And they said yeah, we'll show you a mine, and they took us

on a trek far, far away from town to a mine where they sent

in advance someone ahead of us to clear everyone out because

there were kids working in the mine.

Then we got there, and they're like, oh, yeah, everybody's

just gone home for the day.

They actually fessed up to that to Horeb, to our guy, so,

I'm still pissed off.

It's gonna be an interesting night.

Probably about 5:30 in the morning here in the Numbi

mining town.

This is a town with no electricity,

with no running water.

We basically got stranded out here, which wasn't really part

of the plan.

They didn't take too kindly to us initially, but they were

even worried about our safety, because we're in South Kivu,

and they're not used to this kind of thing.

A bunch of foreigners spending a night here.

They gave us this little house to stay in.

Then they offered us a couple soldiers to guard

us all night long.

You know, yesterday we experienced them trying to

keep some secrets hidden.

So today we have a plan.

We're going to break free.

We're going to go a couple kilometers, and we're going to

set up and wait for the miners to show up so we can really

see how these mines operate.

This is the main street of the Numbi mining town.

It's very muddy today, after raining all night.

It reeks of urine.

Here's my breakfast, along with two Advils and some kind

of mega antibiotic cure all.

When anything goes wrong in Africa, you take that pill.

Plugs up your ass, reduces fever.

Well, so much for getting a head start on everyone.

Oh, shit.

Jason, Jason, come here.

I think it's like, quicksand.

I just kept going down.

This is not going to be fun.

This is the main Numbi mine.

Just got there.