Deadliest Roads | Congo: Jungle Messengers | Free Documentary

[Applause] [Music] hey [Music] [Music] is oh juvenile is not as calm as he looks the last time he crossed the old bridge it was close to collapsing these mechanics are in for a nasty [Applause] surprise [Music] is there is a solution but it comes at a price some villagers have dug out an alternative route but after five days on the road juvenile is not in the mood to negotiate since annoyed the truck drivers take the detour by force 30 000 congolese franks around 16 pounds for right of way is far too expensive and would result in even less money shared between the team however if the truck gets stuck no villager will come to help them unless they cough up the cash juvenile largely relies on his eight-wheel drive truck but for once strength doesn't lie in numbers [Applause] see foreign the villagers are miffed while the mechanics applaud their driver's skills in congo there is a proverb that says he who does not travel does not know the value of men and in south kivu practically all travellers are heroes it takes courage to traverse the roads of this region that has been abandoned by the government to get by you need to know how to build bridges in a matter of hours towns are almost completely cut off from the outside world bringing them supplies is an endless journey even old army trucks can't reach [Music] them [Music] [Music] okay each mile is like a never-ending saga [Music] supreme [Music] in congo system d in other words being resourceful is king while on the face of it poverty is widespread the subsoil of south kivu is bursting with precious minerals for the industry like coltan and cobalt an ecological crisis the ulindi river is being contaminated for a few grams of gold although this does not stay in the miners pockets for long [Music] by motorbike by bicycle in front of the wheel or flying a plane the six million congolese in the kivu region fight a daily battle refusing to ever give in juvenile's old german military truck is having a hard time it's struggling to transport two thousand liters of petrol juvenile is delivering this to shabunda the most isolated town in south kivu this title will not be taken over anytime soon the road is a truck killer [Applause] this is the 10th breakdown they've dealt with since setting off they're only a few miles from shabunda so the mechanics want to return on it's going to take lots of morale all they have is a few adjustable spanners and their own muscles to move parts weighing more than 100 [Music] kilograms [Music] 10 hours later the shrewd mechanics have won their bet but their only prize is satisfaction they have a bleak night ahead of them angry the following morning juvenile and his team finally arrive in shabunda only three trucks like his dare to supply the city the drivers take it in turn as much as possible but every time it's a nightmare [Music] the city is running dry and is almost completely out of petrol given that it's been almost three weeks since it was last supplied with it four pounds per liter a small fortune shopunder is so difficult to reach that prices are skyrocketing the cost of living is more expensive here than in any european city whilst petrol arrives in trucks food on the other hand arrives by plane but the small twin-engine planes can only transport two tons of merchandise which once again raises prices the 80 000 residents must pay a heavy price for their isolation [Applause] [Music] four wooden planks are enough to start up a luxury grocers shop in his shop david sells everything three to four times more expensive than in the rest of the country [Music] is beginning to feel cursed the road to paradise even if it's the fastest is not easy every time they approach the city malu and his co-pilot feel rather uneasy especially given that the landing strip is located right in the middle of the city the locals regularly cross it to go from one neighborhood to another but this is not without its risks a few days before we began filming a little girl was hit by a plane during take-off [Music] walking along the sides of the runway is just as dangerous there are landings that have skidded off the runway like in 2017 the reality is that the control tower is not properly equipped to guide the pilots no radar just a cb radio to communicate with at least when it's working [Music] on [Applause] [Music] [Applause] 30 flights a week are just about enough to feed the city the two thousand liters of petrol that juvenile brought over has swiftly been sold the next day another truck takes to the road but this time it is junior who's in charge of the journey juvenile warns him about the dangers of this route [Music] the old german military truck still bears the scars of junior's last journey and that's not all on the way here he ran out of petrol so this time he takes the lot the poorest travelers use these trucks to leave the city [Music] this is the case for maria and her family they could not afford the 316 pound flight [Music] [Music] [Music] they paid 10 pounds each for a corner of the wagon there was space to sit in the cabin but even 20 pounds was beyond their budget [Music] yes reaching the town of mugembi is quite a journey it can take anywhere between three days and three weeks to cover the 43-mile route [Music] junior is not even out of the city and has already hit a hurdle um [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] in the back of the truck it's even riskier [Applause] [Music] junior and his truck stop in every village they are the jungle delivery men the villagers are sending it to mugembe to be fixed weighs more than 200 kilos [Music] is to wear rushes to split up junior and a mechanic you are having a drunken fight over some shifty money matters the mechanic has been handed over to the police um the crew have just lost one of their men the police take him to sober up at the station and to make matters worse in a few miles having one less pair of hands will begin to take its toll on the team maria's mom however seems to be enjoying the worsening situation [Laughter] according to duere laughter will ward off bad luck and he doesn't use this word lightly over the next few miles things take a turn for the worse the 28-ton old german truck becomes more and more out of control junior has ended up in a ditch just three miles from where they set off foreign [Music] it is 11 p.m they've been digging for six hours now [Music] for maria and her mother these six hours have been spent waiting in the back of the wagon she's had enough okay they will walk for two more hours in complete darkness the mud is taking its toll on others too francois and his brother have been pushing their bicycle for three days they are returning to shabunda they went to buy some much cheaper food at the other end of the route an 87 mile track that allows them to feed their family [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Applause] foreign his brother bump into junior and his mired truck at around 1am the mechanics are still hard at work they commend the two brothers for their determination they're faring better with their bike than with an eight-wheel drive truck junior is hoping that tomorrow his truck will muster the strength to not only escape the mire but also finish the remaining 40 mile journey but it's a long shot an isolated region with a sky-high cost of living you may wonder why some 80 000 people continue to live in shibunda well because everyone has a disease that drives them crazy gold fever the ulindy river that flows below the region is sitting atop a huge treasure trove in chibunde precious metal trading houses have sprung up like mushrooms hey [Music] foreign [Applause] since the discovery of the precious metal in 2014 thousands have come to seek their fortune on the ulindi river [Music] so my some problems dozens of old small boats take the miners out to the mining sites almost like a floating coffin but for the living is the only one wearing a life jacket and for good reason two weeks ago his boat sank and he's one of the few survivors [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign between the shipwrecks and the armed groups that racketeer the gold miners the alundi river is beginning to look more like the wild west [Music] with more than 200 illegal mines scattered across the banks and on the river it's hardly surprising that our cameras are not welcome here [Applause] okay he's a diving miner [Applause] [Applause] [Music] and he'll need it on average the river claims the life of one diver every month 15 meters underwater kojak sucks up the sand with this large pipe that is connected to a pump the gold is recovered with this filter one [Applause] kojak resurfaces after two hours of [Applause] diving the depths of the river yield somewhere between 500 and 700 kilograms of gold a year but the congolese benefit very little from this abundance of gold contract tells us that congolese miners are taxed by gangs and that chinese companies excavate the riverbed with much more efficient dredges when the gold runs dry foreign the city of shabunda does not reap a single benefit from all this gold the majority of miners work illegally and the officials in charge of monitoring them are usually corrupt on top of this the city has no running water or electricity the river is their only source of clean water but not for much longer gold pannas release almost one ton of mercury into the river each year it's a poison that slowly kills but blinded by the gold rush no one wants to believe this including kojac [Music] is [Music] [Music] and the poison is not going anywhere anytime soon according to the ngo global witness an estimated 23 billion pounds worth of gold lies under the soil in eastern democratic republic of congo enough to make bandits and corrupt elites rich as for the rest all they can do is dream and struggle a great deal despite their efforts junior's truck refuses to get out of the quagmire in the space of a day they've traveled just three miles and there are still another 40 to go until they reach their destination after slaving away for 10 hours they are finally free but for how long in the early hours of the morning maria and her mum get back in the truck with little hope of arriving during the day junior doesn't average any more than one mile per hour and the track is just one pitfall after [Music] another [Music] mechanics like bianca are at the end of their tether [Music] [Music] and there are many others on the road who must go through blood sweat and tears so they don't starve to death [Music] okay [Music] they are slaves to the road who transport the impossible bringing food to shabunda for the shopkeepers that cannot afford the plane [Music] [Music] [Music] difficult [Music] [Music] foreign [Applause] the team have now traveled nine miles more or less without a hitch and it's just as well given that this part of the jungle is patrolled by armed groups many hijackings take place here so junior does not want to get stuck not that he has any say on the matter lima [Music] it is 30 degrees and the water supply has run out a man has gone looking for some parched maria and her mother go to meet him [Music] hello a little further on road workers are trying to put an end to the roads curse they're not paid by the state but by several villages that have pulled their resources except they haven't got any tools [Music] [Music] on junior's end him and his mechanics are picking up the pace tomorrow morning they have a meeting with a driver in matilli to pick up more cargo except the man is still far away very far away he's coming via a different route but since setting off the truck driver is having troubles of his own in every village he goes through he comes across a toll or rather a hole that's been expertly maintained by the locals [Music] foreign a passenger has come up with a smart idea he fears that the detour is just another trap that's been designed to ask for more money foreign um for twenty thousand congolese francs or nine pounds the villagers agreed to help them okay [Music] [Music] oh towards the end of the day john sets off again um it will take him two days to meet with junior in the jungle never mind being on time reaching your destination is a feat in itself as for junior he will reach mugembe after a long nine trek punctuated by countless pitfalls [Music] me [Music] their ordeal is endless the drive back to shibunda will take just as long as the way there nine days despite its magnificent wealth of minerals the region is not about to escape from its isolation anytime soon the blame mainly lies with the armed groups and corruption that plagues the country for as long as they remain active the youth of south kivu will see modernity as an impossible [Music] dream [Music] wow [Music] you

Channel: Free Documentary

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Keywords: Free Documentary, Documentaries, Full documentary, HD documentary, most dangerous roads, most dangerous journeys, worlds most dangerous roads, worlds most dangerous journeys, deadliest roads, deadliest roads in the world, dicing with death, deadliest journeys, dicing with death congo, most dangerous roads congo, deadliest roads congo, dangerous roads congo, dangerous congo, deadliest journeys congo, congo, jungle messenger, jungle

Id: coyaVoVkhVw

Length: 51min 37sec (3097 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 09 2022