00:00 Five times the size of France, the third largest country on the African continent - the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is above all one of the richest countries in raw materials in the world. There is Cobalt, mainly used in mobile phones and in aeronautics, copper, zinc, gold and diamonds in incredible quantities.
01:54 At the Lubumbashi bus station, trucks carrying goods are rare
07:19 Nicknamed warthog, the wild boar of the road
13:48 In Congo, we celebrate death with a smile
15:00 A path too uneven for the truck
20:30 250 kilometers in nine days
21:50 An unexpected break in the journey
28:07 The mining region of Kolwezi, industries ready to do anything to have mines in Congo
40:37 Back on the road despite road traffic
Our cameras focused on Katanga, a province located in the south of the DRC, which concentrates three quarters of the country's wealth. We accompany Eugène, a trader who has a truck loaded with goods and who has to leave Lubumbashi, the economic capital of the country, to reach his hometown, Bukama, 650 kilometers further north. Here, the train only works once in ten; the truck remains the only way to transport the goods, because there is no airport. The journey from Lubumbashi to Bukama takes four days. At the wheel: Domingo, the prince of the road, assisted by three conveyors: they hang on the outside of the truck and are the eyes and ears of the driver. We accompanied them throughout their expedition, a nightmare on totally impassable roads, an African remake of the "wages of fear" with, as a backdrop, an organized looting of wealth, mainly by three countries: China, India and the USA.
Location: Democratic Republic of Congo
Producer: Tony Comiti, France5
Author: Christophe Kenck