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Will Fitzgibbon on Muck Rack

Will Fitzgibbon

Verified
Washington, D.C.
As seen in: The Examination, The New York Times, The New York Times en Español, El País, HuffPost, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Yahoo News, Yahoo News Malaysia, Le Monde, SFGate and
Senior Reporter and Global Partnership Coordinator with @examinationnews. Former reporter @icijorg #panamapapers #pandorapapers (etc) #shadowdiplomats. CAMS
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Articles

The factory that poisoned this Congolese town is gone. But the toxic lead remains.

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By Will Fitzgibbon Verified
| The Examination
Cyrille Traoré Ndembi, a father of four in the Republic of Congo, thought help was on the way for Cyrfanie, his youngest child. More than a year ago, in December 2024, the country’s environmental minister shut down a battery recycling facility near Ndembi’s home that spewed lead into the air, contaminating soil and poisoning neighbors, including Cyrfanie. The minister ordered the company operating the factory, Metssa Congo, to pay the community about $18,000 for cleanup and medical care.
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The factory that poisoned this Congolese town is gone. But the toxic lead remains.

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By Will Fitzgibbon Verified
| Flipboard
Now The argument that 'our ancestors did it, not us' is often cited by some Western countries in debates over slavery reparations. But Ghana is challenging that position on the global stage. In 2026, Ghana led a UN resolution calling for reparative justice and the return of cultural heritage items. However, can restorative justice succeed without legally binding enforcement?
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The Examination and The New York Times win 2026 Selden Ring Award for ‘The Poisonous Lead Trade’

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By Will Fitzgibbon Verified, Taylor Turner Verified
| University of Southern California
It all began when Will Fitzgibbon received a tip in 2023. The reporter at the nonprofit newsroom The Examination was told that the metals trading company Trafigura was buying lead in Africa and selling it overseas to make car batteries. He knew enough about the lead trade to understand this might be the key to exposing one of the dirtiest secrets of the automobile industry: that big car companies were profiting from the dangerous practices of unregulated factories in farflung countries.
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