CODECO Rebels Kill Chinese Nationals, Abduct Others In DR Congo Mine Attack
The CODECO rebels attacked in the morning, killing some Chinese workers and abducting some of them, alongside mining tools.
Two Chinese nationals were killed, and some others abducted after an attack by rebels of the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO) on Thursday, August 11, 2022, on a gold mining site in Bwanga village, Banyali Kilo sector of Djugu territory in Ituri province of Democratic Republic of Congo.
An eyewitness told HumAngle that “there was a lot of material damage and the looting”. Adding that the assault was carried out by about one hundred CODECO elements who came in from Besse, one of the bastions of the armed group, and attacked the mining site controlled by the Chinese.
“It was at around 5 a.m. local time that we heard gunfire. We were eventually informed that it was CODECO rebels who had attacked a Chinese gold mining site in Bwanga. The provisional casualty figures are two Chinese shot dead at the scene and others kidnapped,” revealed Basiloko Toko Jean-Robert, president of the local civil society, citing a soldier who succeeded in escaping from the scene. However, he did not give the number of Chinese abducted.
Among the materials damaged on the site were extraction engines including two excavators. Traffic between Kilo and Mongbwalu was interrupted for some hours but has since resumed.
“The Congolese government must not surrender to the hypocrisy of CODECO militia.” declared the civil society activist.
In June this year, CODECO rebels announced a unilateral ceasefire while waiting for the effective implementation of the disarmament and reinsertion programme. However, in the last few weeks, CODECO rebels have carried out several attacks in several localities in the Banyali-Kilo sector in Djugu, provoking new displacements of locals after some relative calm.
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