While I was expecting more of a human interest story and I felt bogged down with the amount of information presented, I did realize the importance of this book.

Occupying the entire heart of the African continent, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is an extraordinary land teeming with nature. The brutal exploitation of the Congolese people and the raping of a nation is exposed from first hand witness accounts.Accountability vanishes like morning mist in the Katangan hills as it travels through the opaque supply chains that connect stone to phone and car. Whats going on in the Congo is abhorrent conditions, child labor, under reporting of deaths from mining facilities and companies lying about where their cobalt comes from. Cobalt is an essential ingredient of the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power our smartphones, laptops and electric cars. I also must thank all in Congo that were involved in the making of this book; may it bring your truth to the world and may we all be strong enough to make the change that needs to be made - your stories have forever changed me and I will never, ever, forget you. The people and children of Congo are very, very, brave [ they do what they have to do to have lives, even though it is full of pain and poverty and more often than not, death].

Trillions of dollars are being made by huge corporations, while the Congolese people slave away, suffer, get paralyzed and sick, and sometimes buried alive. Once you have read this book, you will NEVER EVER look at your cell phone, tablet, ANYTHING that is rechargeable ever again. These guides assisted me in gaining access to scores of mining sites, as well as the people who toiled at them. The ongoing exploitation of the poorest people of the Congo by the rich and powerful invalidates the purported moral foundation of contemporary civilization and drags humanity back to a time when the people of Africa were valued only by their replacement cost.Most people do not know what is happening in the cobalt mines of the Congo, because the realities are hidden behind numerous layers of multinational supply chains that serve to erode accountability. I am writing this review on my laptop with a rechargeable battery, looking at my tablet with a rechargeable battery. In all my time in the Congo, I never saw or heard of any activities linked to either of these coalitions, let alone anything that resembled corporate commitments to international human rights standards, third-party audits, or zero-tolerance policies on forced and child labor. Everyone who uses a smartphone, an electric vehicle, or anything else powered by rechargeable batteries needs to read what Siddharth Kara has uncovered.