⁍ Democratic Republic of Congo’s second-largest city is the capital of the mineral-rich southeastern province of Haut-Katanga.
⁍ 200 Mai-Mai militiamen, armed with guns and machetes, marched into Lubumbashi late on Friday.
⁍ Two police officers were beheaded and a soldier was shot dead in the stand-off with security forces, who killed 16 rebels as they rebuffed the attack.
– Pro-independence rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo beheaded two police officers and killed a soldier in an attempt to seize government buildings in the mineral-rich southeastern city of Lubumbashi, Reuters reports. Security forces killed 16 rebels as they repelled the incursion. Lubumbashi is the capital of Haut-Katanga province, where mining companies such as Ivanhoe and MMG Ltd have concessions. Late on Friday, around 200 Mai-Mai militiamen, armed with guns and machetes, had marched into the city of around 2 million people with the aim of occupying official buildings and the local television station. Two police officers were beheaded and a soldier was shot dead in the stand-off with security forces, who killed 16 rebels as they rebuffed the attack, he said. ‘At the moment the situation is under control and it has become calm across the whole territory of the city,’ a regional official said. Mai-Mai comprise several armed bands that originally formed to resist two invasions by Rwandan forces in the late 1990s. They have since morphed into a variety of ethnic-based militia, including hardline secessionists.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-congo-security/congolese-security-forces-thwart-rebel-attempt-to-seize-mining-hub-idUSKBN26H0O9