Global Witness creator text Global Witness 2016 monographic 32p. The report reveals that an estimated $28 billion worth of gold lies under the soil in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo .However the country’s gold wealth, the majority of which is artisanally mined, has long been ill-used. Preyed upon by armed groups, bandits and corrupt elites the revenues generated by eastern Congo’s artisanal gold sector have all too often funded corruption or fuelled abuses and violent conflict rather than helping to relieve the region’s poverty. The investigation into a recent gold rush along the Ulindi River in Shabunda territory in eastern Congo reveals the extent of the problems that beset the region’s artisanal gold sector. The Ulindi boom generated more than a tonne of gold per year, worth around $38 million, whose beneficiaries included armed groups and a predatory Chinese-owned company, Kun Hou Mining, rather than the local population. In some cases, the report reveals that the authorities worked hand-in-hand with armed men and women from Raia Mutomboki armed groups to illegally tax artisanal gold diggers, in violation of Congolese law. Natural Resources, Gold ,Conflict iffoadatabase.trustafrica.org/iff/river-of-gold-report-global-witness-july-2016.pdf iffoadatabase.trustafrica.org/iff/river-of-gold-report-global-witness-july-2016.pdf