A militia attack on a gold mine in northeastern Congo has left six Chinese miners and two Congolese soldiers dead, a civil society group reported on Thursday. This incident marks the latest in a series of violent assaults as unrest intensifies in the mineral-rich Ituri province.
The assault occurred on Wednesday in the village of Gambala and the nearby “Camp Blanquette” gold mine, according to Jean Robert Basiloko, a member of a local civil society group. The Cooperative for the Development of the Congo (CODECO), a militia, claimed responsibility for the attack.
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Eastern Congo has been plagued by decades of conflict involving over 120 armed groups, often clashing over control of the region’s gold and other valuable resources. Violence in the area has escalated in recent months, with security forces engaged in ongoing battles against these militias.
During the attack, the militiamen set homes ablaze and then stormed the mine, which is protected by a rival armed group, the Zaire Militia, Basiloko informed The Associated Press. The assault resulted in the deaths of six Chinese miners and two Congolese soldiers, and two additional miners were abducted; their current whereabouts are unknown.
The conflict between CODECO and the Zaire Militia is complex, involving economic ambitions and power struggles. The Zaire Militia, a breakaway faction from CODECO, is in fierce opposition to its former allies.
CODECO comprises various militia groups primarily from the ethnic Lendu farming community. Attacks by CODECO have claimed nearly 1,800 lives and injured more than 500 people over the four years leading up to 2022, according to the African Center for the Study and Research on Terrorism.
The United Nations has indicated that some of these attacks may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
