Deadliest Roads | Congo Kivu | Free Documentary

[Applause] [Music] hey [Music] [Music] is in europe a scooter is a kid's toy but in the congo it allows people like ahuma to earn a living his ancient scooter is made of [Music] and it allows him to be a transporter my scooter can carry up to 500 kilos i can carry several loads manioc cabbage carrots peanuts wait a minute your breaks don't work you'll die for nothing risking his life on a daily basis brings in the equivalent of 100 euros a month as much as a teacher would earn the other hand his life hangs by a thread i use this to break and i've soldered the handlebars loaded down with four 100 kilo sacks that sukudu as they call it in the congo is hardly maneuverable the secret is the ability to balance the merchandise and have the muscle power to push on through you need to be strong otherwise you can't drive it to kudu akuma delivers his cargo 20 kilometers down the road at goma market [Music] at full throttle he reaches speeds of up to 30 kilometers an hour there are an estimated 5 000 scooters in the region and in these parts it said a man who wants to get married needs a sakura after three hours of alternating downhill and flat stretches ahuma reaches gomer [Music] the large bustling city of 400 000 is a commercial crossroads potatoes corn maniac and every sort of crop from kivu the bread basket of congo passes through gomer [Music] at the vatican transport company the staff is trying to perform miracles give me the box of machetes one of the drivers is wondering how he'll manage the 12 tonnes of freight when his truck can only carry 10. here's the phrase they're mattresses clothes motorbikes the company director packs the merchandise into skips his depot is full and as his trucks seem to be always on the road the rotations take far too long you see all this stuff that's crammed into here that's because of the roads the roads used to be good it would take four days to reach kisangani nowadays tanzania burundi and rwanda all use congo as a transit for their goods thousands of tons of freight travel along national road 4 heading for kitangani where they're loaded onto boats for the capital kinshasa national road 4 is a 1 200 kilometer long obstacle course i pray to god every time that i arrive in one piece it's a sticky bog through which hundreds of drivers struggle every day to advance just a few hundred meters the road is a virtual open-air prison i've been here for four days if we don't do something now the people of kisangani will die of starvation the congo has been called a giant with clay feet it's four times the size of texas just two percent of its roads though are asphalted yet it's an immensely rich country gold diamonds and precious metals could have made it one of the wealthiest nations on earth were it not for the ravages of 40 years of dictatorship and chaos and he says truck starts to resemble a skyscraper with a tower of cargo the truck will pitch and toss at every bump tighten the gropes its weight alone could tip the truck right over we have to fasten everything because of the roads if anything moves the whole lot will tumble and we'll never make it to kisangani to carry the extra two tons of weight the mechanics try their best to reinforce the truck we're replacing the suspension to deal with the awful road conditions [Applause] the strengthened suspension provides any say with some peace of mind we're hopeful when we drive we never know when we'll get there but we'll fight our way through and make it and fighting is the best way to describe how to tackle roads in the congo [Music] the 1200 kilometers between gomer and kisangani are an epic odyssey [Music] as soon as you exit gomer the road turns to track unexpectedly after 250 kilometers there's a stretch of 60 kilometers of proper surface all too quickly left behind from now on it just gets worse [Applause] there are a lot of accidents on this road i pray to god to give me strength to drive the truck and to protect us [Music] the truck is struggling under its exceptional load [Applause] good job i changed the suspension anisee is pleasantly surprised apart from one large hole the road's been quite good and he's making a steady 20 kilometers an hour by day four he's closing in on mambaza the town that marks the halfway point of his journey i should have reached mambaza by 8 pm at the latest unless the truck breaks down [Music] foreign the next morning his truck is acting up i have to stop there's something wrong in the back i'll check but i think i've broken down [Applause] two extra tons have taken their toll on the truck luckily he's not transporting perishable food help would only show up ten days later and he say is discouraged yet he doesn't realize the breakdown has actually saved him from disaster [Applause] the road is about to claim another victim eric aged 43 is an experienced driver let's go [Music] the road network began to get worse at the same time congo was granted independence from belgium in the early 1960s eric remembers the days when national road 4 was trouble-free [Music] [Applause] before problems like this rarely arose when the road network was good when the road was in good condition the going was good since it's impossible to know how long a journey might last the drivers are paid per trip by the transport companies eric earns 200 euros for each return journey whatever i do earn it's to feed my family to send them to school so now you see it's difficult for me he can easily double his salary by taking passengers on board he has 20 for this trip and all of them paid the equivalent of 10 dollars to get to kizangani it may be uncomfortable but it's the best and cheapest way according to the travelers you can go buy a minibus but it's more expensive i prefer trucks to mini buses because trucks can deal with any kind of situation the truck is more powerful it can force its way through the worst of the mud the only alternative to national road 4 is to fly but the tickets cost 20 times as much a fortune 70 percent of the population survives on less than one euro a day god's will is always done it must be his decision to make me poor there are about 30 toll booths like this along the way at each one the fee is 4 euros the money is meant to be used to maintain the road but it usually ends up in the pockets of the bureaucrats [Music] kilometer 380 is a perfect example of this kind of racket the road here is little more than a swamp eventually eric has to ask his passengers to get off it's too dangerous to stay on board as the potholes cause the truck to shake violently the whole time there the minibus has been stuck for about five hours come on dig this is where it starts to happen this is where the small holes are and there are some very old holes along the 300 kilometers straight the head is a truck that's got stuck inside a hole and you can hardly see it anymore it's the mother of all holes and these are the grandchildren the newborn no one wants to spend the night out here all the men eric included lend a hand [Applause] [Music] you're not pushing hard enough [Applause] [Applause] [Music] is it's no joke back in the 60s the province of south kazai really did introduce an article 15 into its constitution making do as best you can it's what most congolese have to do every day and helping your neighbor is part of it yeah with god's help i'll get through it's eric's turn to get stuck in [Music] without helping each other i don't think there's any way we'd be able to make it on this road in any case this is the road from hell eric picks up his passengers again but getting up onto the roof requires agility kiwi province has been ravaged by war for more than 20 years rebels have been trying to get hold of its natural resources such as gold some locals have taken advantage of the chaos to attack travelers there are a lot of bandits here who stop the vehicles then take the drivers or passengers hostage and demand ransoms for their freedom of course we're scared but then you don't eat and if you don't eat then you become a bandit too [Music] if you want to survive national road 4 the unwritten rule is don't drive at night but eric has little choice but to break that rule as there's no village in sight at around midnight he can finally switch off the engine what's happening eric well the road up ahead is dangerous so i'm going to take a break here uh where there's some houses the nightmare begins in such villages in the bush there's no water or electricity let alone hotels so the passengers improvise a camp a wood fire and some blankets will see them through the night they share what food they have it really doesn't matter whether you eat or you don't eat it's fine out here christian is an engineer by training but after being out of work he's turned his hand to the lumbar trade between the congo and uganda in any event salesmen are at the mercy of our own fate there's nothing we can do about it i quit university to make a few deals out here but we can't because of the road the road is our enemy yes that's right a good night's sleep might come in handy as tomorrow a sea of mud is waiting for them [Music] eight hundred kilometers away rubaiya masisi wakes up amid an infernal record [Music] just 12 months earlier this town was just a small village nowadays thousands of congolese thronged its streets there's plenty of work here [Music] providence is what's hidden inside these bags filled with earth they're from the hills that overlook the town [Music] thousands of men are working deep underground extracting coal tanks it's a precious mineral used in all aspects of electronics from computers mobile phones and satellites [Music] praise be to god almighty for having protected me i slept well and woke up in peace it's now time to go to work amani used to be a teacher but dreams of riches made him trade in his books for a pickaxe the other supporters about a dozen of them fill the bags with colton the gallery is about 15 meters underground the 40-degree heat is unbearable amani and his colleague work in 15-minute relays i've been working here for about three years to earn money for my family back in gomer i have a wife and five children all at home and some of the porters are children don't go to school [Music] school to afford school i need to work what class are you in year five the mine belongs to a company that pays them on what they produce how much do you earn well it depends if you dig up a lot of the minerals you make a lot of money if you produce little then you earn nothing he works 10 hours a day on average and makes 140 euros a month amiga salary considering the risks involved the rock easily crumbles [Music] [Music] a small landslide but in may 2013 the mountain buried 47 workers the dust makes me sneeze the whole time [Music] my kitchen the porters take the sacks of colton to the river four times a day to be sifted [Music] a one and a half hour long descent with a load of 50 kilos [Music] what's up [Music] most of those doing the sifting are kids some as young as eight years old mr chris bung is in charge of this operation there are two minerals the black one is manganese manganese is one of the most common metals in the world it's one of the components used to make steel and aluminium to get the mineral you need to filter it many times the substance doesn't run off with the water it just drains it off like the dirt i don't know what the manganese is used for [Music] the colton for between three and four euros a kilo once refined the metal will be worth 200 times more on the international market amani sees his family just once a year at christmas [Music] his entire life revolves around the mind and his dream of finding [Music] for now i plan to stay here until i find a rich vein that will make me enough money to be able to go my [Music] after a night under the stars eric the driver is back behind the wheel [Music] there's still 400 kilometers to go to reach kisangani the journey will be an epic the ground is damp and with every passing truck the ruts only become deeper it's not good this they manage barely 10 kilometers an hour and a driver coming in the opposite direction warns them of a bigger problem further on uh eric heads into the equatorial forest which even in the dry season is incredibly humid it's a trap for trucks [Applause] [Music] eric stops as an enormous traffic jam has brought everything to a halt about 50 vehicles are stuck eric is worried it's a whole row of vehicles how long will it take up to a week this 45-ton truck is responsible for the jam its trailer has been stuck in the mud for four days they've tried everything to extract it but without success the driver is obliged to offload some of his cargo there's a hole you have to lighten the load and then after that another truck comes along and that one tries to tow you out of the hole drivers and passengers come to help carry the dozens of bags of rice that weigh a hundred kilos each some frustrated drivers try to force a way through get out of the way you're blocking all these vehicles and they can't get through [Music] the lighter four-wheel drive vehicle manages to get by and the drivers of the other cars try to follow suit the driver of the truck that's bogged down is furious he'd been told back in mombasa the road was good the supervisors told me the road was tarmacked i even heard that on the radio how are we meant to deliver our merchandise what kind of government is there here we've been here four days sleeping here for four days everyone's stuck here hundreds of passengers pass the time the best they can we're here it's tough for us the wife doesn't eat much we sleep out here like the monkeys in the forest all this makes us wonder where this country is headed [Music] the truck coming from the opposite direction won't make things any easier [Applause] the jam is now totally as if by magic a digger suddenly shows up this could be the beginning of the end to the mess it's from one of the many chinese companies that have moved into the congo the government has awarded them construction and road building contracts the locals however don't trust their quality of work chinese kick back a percentage to the government they bribe the ministers then in return get the contract to rebuild the roads but they know nothing about that they're just here to pillage our mineral resources the crane however proves remarkably effective one car at full speed almost hits a pedestrian [Music] freeing the second truck is another matter the mud is up to its chassis and it will need to be lifted it's a delicate maneuver as the trailer could be ripped right off [Applause] [Applause] [Music] once it sorted things out the digger will try and fix the road the workers have even called in a bulldozer to pack down the earth the congolese find it suspicious so much hardware is uncommon out here first cars start up again but are soon forced to halt and everyone soon understands they're going nowhere as the road has been improved specifically to allow a convoy through [Music] the military are headed for the areas around goma in a major offensive against the rebels the civilians look on as the newly refurbished surface is churned up by dozens of trucks and tanks the chinese workforce has disappeared and faced with a new disaster tempers flare if you stay there you'll have problems move your truck there's another free-for-all everyone wants to get on before conditions make the road impassable again [Music] well since seven this morning we've done less than three kilometers [Music] eric and his passengers will be stuck here for three days and nights and their calvary doesn't end there it will take them another three weeks to cover the remaining 400 kilometers to kissangani [Applause] making do is part of life in the congo most people in the kivu region have no electricity or gas instead they use charcoal charcoal from this little village is known for its quality [Music] christian's family has been in the charcoal business for generations [Music] [Music] this is where i buy the charcoal that i later selling gomer [Music] it's the weight that makes it a good charcoal [Music] twelve thousand thirteen thousand eighteen thousand the equivalent of fifteen euros each bag weighs almost 100 kilos tying them up is an art [Music] roads tying up a package may be an art but covering 300 kilometers on a bicycle is a science foreign the bags have to be very carefully balanced so they don't fall off mid [Music] route okay now we're ready to hit the road gomer is 50 kilometers away the first 10 are not that flat so christian needs an extra pair of hands the youngster charges 80 cents for two hours pushing now when they follow you can go now thank you [Music] managing 300 kilos on your own and with a pair of flip-flops as breaks is quite an achievement [Music] christian makes three or four trips a week that earn him about 120 euros a [Music] month charcoal is as good as diamonds to me i can feed my family [Music] six hours later and christian makes it into gomer the last three kilometers are the worst [Music] christian is exhausted but one ambition keeps him going that of buying a motorbike with his savings [Music] it's really very hard going it's tough but i made it when he buys his motorbike he says he will quit the charcoal business and get into a much larger scale transportation [Music] trucks take about one month to shuttle between gomo and kisangani on national road four the kings of the road are the bikers who can make the journey in one week the drawback is they can only carry so much and it's recommended not to give them anything fragile see this is how we carry 30 kilos since i left with tempo i've fallen over oh 100 times such a load the only suitable place is on the petrol tank [Music] the bikers always travel in the group helping each other out when needed [Music] oh it's not too deep the motorbikes will get through this [Music] uh [Applause] the truck is the first in a long line of vehicles the line is impressive it stretches for over two kilometers at least 400 trucks are parked alongside the road in both directions this is kilometer 320. it's between the towns of nyania and bafuezende the motorcyclists are the only ones who can make their way through the huge swamp this time the trucks have been stuck for more than a week and no one's going to come and help them you see this the water comes up from below the surface the shopkeepers are concerned all the humidity is not good for their merchandise especially the food stuff which quickly goes bad in the back of the trucks there's beans there's onions we'll what will we do while we're here we can't work we're held to ransom by the military by the police by everybody what can we do how is it that in neighboring countries you can drive 800 even a thousand kilometers in two days but in the congo which is a rich country where there's gold and diamonds everywhere why are we left to rot on the roads see you see how many people are stuck here what kind of life is this those trapped on the roads are left to fend for themselves to make a good barbecue using damp charcoal an exhaust pipe is essential the only source of water is in the river [Music] [Music] dying of hunger the trucks are a microcosm of the country's economy stagnating as its road networks fall increasingly into ruin oh [Music] one man is certain that things will improve thanks to the hand of god and a truck loaded with 30 tons of goods hit us we were sent flying to the other side of the road yet i emerged without a scratch stories of miracles that have occurred on national road 4 abound at the church of the so-called city of refugees where people abandoned by their state can find some solace pastor jules welcomes them into his evangelical church [Applause] the preacher promises he will deliver the world from misery and disease all caused by evil spirits apparently you will heal the afflicted and many with incurable illnesses will come here and [Applause] we will chase the evil spirits out of the bodies of those that have come here [Applause] open your mouth now kiss your husband quick now now you will share passions amen [Music] war poverty illness the congolese people face no end of suffering yet somehow it still cannot dampen their joyful exuberance [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] man [Music] baby [Music] you

Channel: Free Documentary

Views: 1,530,049

Rating: 4.8296404 out of 5

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

Id: yJ7xGYBI6PQ

Length: 49min 29sec (2969 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 08 2021