DRC Highways

In Katanga, travel by road during the rainy season is avoided. A lack of maintenance combined with heavy rains can render some roads totally unpassable, causing traffic jams lasting weeks. Still, there’s good money to be made for vehicle-owners prepared to take the risk of delivering essential medications, food, and cleaning supplies to smaller towns. Drivers are usually self-taught mechanics and everyone has to work together to keep shipments moving. Nothing is free on the road, and the trapped vehicles fuel local economies as merchants, poachers, and drug dealers cater to the stranded. This series documents a 30-hour, 450 kilometre journey between Lubumbashi and Luena, DRC.