Sir, – The instability of the Democratic Republic of the Congo may prove to be a significant inconvenience for electric car owners, as Anthony King writes (Science, May 10th), but it is a catastrophe without end for the people of that benighted country.
Katanga, with the richest concentration of precious metals and minerals on earth, was the origin of the 65 kilos of enriched uranium in the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Since then, it has been plundered unconscionably.
The International Rescue Committee estimates that 5.4 million people died in the conflict in the Congo in the decade up to 2009.
Despite the intervention of the largest United Nations peacekeeping force in history (MONUSCO), the slaughter continues.
When I worked for a uranium and copper mine in Katanga in the 1970s there was a glimmer of hope. Now there is none. – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN DOHERTY,
Vienna, Austria.