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Your analysis of the conflict in the Congo represents it as though there were no political and economic context for the ongoing brutality and violence against women - you mention vague "murky causes" but conspicuously fail to mention the role of resource extraction companies - largely mining companies from Canada and other rich countries - in feeding the violence through their hunger for minerals. Among the most sought-after minerals in the Congo is, of course, the coltan in our mobile phones. In neglecting this crucial economic factor linking every mobile phone user with the suffering of Congolese women in a global economy of war and resource extraction (the rape of Congo on a broader scale), you perpetuate racist constructions of senseless and incomprehensible African violence and miss an opportunity to alert readers to the very real responsibility for the ongoing crisis in the Congo that lies in the boardrooms and office towers of the mining companies, investment banks and weapons dealers that uphold the economic affluence of the Global North.