Reuters AlertNet Lite - DRC: Tension on the rise in Katanga mining town

Reuters AlertNet Full site

NEWSDESK

DRC: Tension on the rise in Katanga mining town

28 Aug 2008 14:38:41 GMT
Source: IRIN

Background

• Congo (DR) conflict

KINSHASA, 28 August 2008 (IRIN) - Human rights and local government officials in Democratic Republic of Congo's Katanga province have expressed concern about rising tension between different communities in a mining town there.

Clashes broke out on the night of 26 August between residents of Kolwezi and people from neighbouring provinces who work in the town's copper, cobalt, tin and manganese mines.

"There was some material damage, 45 bicycles were burnt," Jean-Marie Dikanga Kazadi, the provincial interior minister, told IRIN.

"Residents decided to avenge a man who had been beaten up [earlier the same day] and set upon the miners, deeming them responsible," the minister said, adding that police helped to restore calm by midnight.

"Anything could happen and not much is being done about it," said Golden Misabiko, president of the Katanga branch of the African Human Rights Association.

"There is a problem between the groups originating from here - the Tshokwe, Lunda, Kahonde, Nungu, Dembo and Kalwena – and the Sanga-Baheke who come from the adjacent province. It's ridiculous to allow people to create the same situation that led to the killings in 1962 and 1991," he added. Hundreds of people were killed and many thousands displaced amid inter-communal clashes in those years.

A new source of tension is draft decentralisation legislation approved by parliament that breaks up the province of Katanga.

"The Sanga and the Baheke are fighting the others because they want to keep the town of Kolwezi, which the new set-up takes away from them and places in the mini-province of Lualaba," said local resident Jean-Marie Mpoyi Lungeni.

There is also a dispute between the central government in Kinshasa and local officials in Katanga over controls imposed over the movement of people into the province. The national interior ministry recently prohibited the mayor of Lubumbashi from imposing a sort of visa system on visitors to the town, a decision local authorities said they would ignore.

ei/am/sr

Email this article Send comments

Emergencies

• Congo (DR) conflict

MORE >>

NGO latest

• MAG DRC - July report
MAG - UK

• Three days in the "Triangle of Death"
MAG - UK

• Three days in the "Triangle of Death"
MAG - UK

• MAG's SALW Global Update - June 2008
MAG - UK

• CHRISTIAN AID LAUNCHES AFRICA FOOD CRISIS APPEAL
Christian Aid - UK

MORE >>

Latest news

• DRC: Tension on the rise in Katanga mining town

• DRC: Leprosy almost eliminated, says government

• CONGO: "We remain marginalised", indigenous people say

• Uganda rebels accuse south Sudan of attack

• Angola expels thousands of Congolese before polls

MORE >>

IRIN news

Breaking stories

DRC: Tension on the rise in Katanga mining town (1 minute ago)

DRC: Leprosy almost eliminated, says government (1 minute ago)

AlertNet insight

MEDIAWATCH: Food summit thwarts hope (1 minute ago)

Aid agency news feed

MAG DRC - July report (1 minute ago)

Blogs

International Criminal Court prosecutor under fire (1 minute ago)

Maps

Climate hazard hotspots (cumulative) (1 minute ago)