An attack on a Chinese gold-mining transport in northeast Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) has killed four people, including two Chinese nationals, authorities said on Saturday.
Sammy Badibanga Kalonji, administrator of the Fizi territory where the attack took place, said a Congolese soldier and driver, as well as two Chinese citizens, were killed in an armed attack near the Kimbo River.
Three other people, including a Congolese soldier and a worker, were seriously injured in the attack and were being treated at a local hospital, Kalonji added.
According to the administrator, the attackers stole a “large amount” of gold from a caravan owned by a Chinese mining company operating in South Kivu province.
Many Chinese mining companies extract gold and other minerals in South Kivu, one of the DRC’s eastern provinces that has suffered violence from armed groups for nearly three decades.
The region is frequently attacked by quarries and mining cooperatives, where more than 120 armed groups compete for land and resources in the country’s east.
In 2022, a Congolese employee of another Chinese mining company in South Kivu was killed in a similar attack by armed assailants.
In 2021, the government suspended six Chinese mining companies in South Kivu for illegal activities.
He also indicated that he was working to secure better terms in a $6.2 billion (€5.7 billion) mining contract with China that authorities said was not lucrative enough for the Central African country. since its signing in 2008.