A four-vehicle mining convoy in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was attacked by unknown assailants on Sunday, killing four passengers, two of whom were Chinese nationals.
The convoy was assaulted as it departed a mine run by TSM Enterprises in the troubled South Kivu province. Local officials said the attackers “stole parcels of gold, which they took away into the bush.”
The other two victims of the attack were a Ghanaian citizen and a Congolese soldier. At least three other passengers in the convoy were wounded during the attack.
China is a prominent investor in Congo mining operations, especially gold, cobalt, and copper, and it consumes the majority of the DRC’s mineral exports.
Workers, including women and children, work in a cobalt mine under very poor conditions in the Mwenga territory of South Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of Congo on July 14, 2023. (Augustin Wamenya/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“Attacks on quarries and mining cooperatives are frequent in the region as more than 120 armed groups compete for land and resources in eastern Congo,” the Associated Press (AP) pointed out.
The Congolese government has lately been attempting to increase its stake in joint mining operations that tend to be dominated by its Chinese partners.
President Felix Tshisekedi made copious promises to renegotiate mining deals with China and claimed earlier this year that his talks with Chinese dictator Xi Jinping on the subject went “wonderfully,” but nothing actually appears to have changed.
Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi (R) and China’s President Xi Jinping attend a welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 26, 2023. (THOMAS PETER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
China took a 68 percent stake in its mining partnership with the DRC, pledging to make up the difference by building infrastructure such as roads, hospitals, and schools. The DRC government said early this year that it had only received a fraction of the infrastructure benefits China promised.
“Tshisekedi is facing tremendous pressure from his political opponents ahead of the December elections. China and this particular deal has become a major issue in this campaign. It is perceived as patently unfair because obviously the Congolese side could have gotten a lot more,” Africa Center for Strategic Studies researcher Paul Nantulya told Voice of America News (VOA) in June.
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