At least six Chinese workers killed by CODECO militia in northeastern DR Congo

China calls on the Congolese government to pursue and prosecute those responsible

4 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –

At least six Chinese workers have been killed in an attack on Wednesday by the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO) militia on a mining area in Ituri, a gold-rich province in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), local authorities reported on Thursday.

“There are indeed six Chinese citizens who were mining gold near Abombi and two soldiers who were killed by CODECO militants. (…) According to their modus operandi, they come, kill, loot and leave,” said Innocent Madukadala, head of the Banyali Kilo sector, according to news portal 7sud7.

The deaths of the eight people – all employees of a private Chinese company – were confirmed by the Army spokesman in Ituri, Lieutenant Jules Ngongo, who explained that they occurred during the military intervention.

Authorities have also reported that at least nine other Chinese citizens have been taken hostage by CODECO gunmen and taken to Digene, one of the group’s strongholds in the town of Djugu.

Chinese workers extracting gold from mines are often targeted by gunmen. In April, one of them was killed in the Mambasa mining area.

For its part, the Chinese government has called on the authorities of the DR Congo on Thursday to act quickly to find and judge those responsible and to take measures to avoid situations of this type in the future.

“China strongly condemns the attack… Intensive search efforts are underway for missing Chinese citizens,” said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning.

“The security situation in the northeastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo has been precarious for some time. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued multiple security alerts. We once again remind our Chinese compatriots to closely follow the ministry’s security alerts,” he said.

Since 2022, several areas in Ituri province have been the scene of an increase in attacks, mainly by CODECO, a militia made up mainly of members of the Lendu community.