[miningmx.com] – THE Democratic Republic of Congo’s (Congo’s) copper-rich Katanga province was ‘a powder keg’, said one of the country’s top officials who added that rebels seeking its independence could heavily destabilise mining investment in the southern province.
Freeport McMoRan, Glencore and South Africa’s own African Rainbow Minerals, in joint venture with Vale, is investing in the Congo.
Citing Claudel Andre Lubaya, a legislator who is the rapporteur for the parliamentary commission for defense and security, newswire service, Reuters, said that anything could happen in Katanga, hitherto relatively insulated from the rebel activities in the Congo’s northern provinces.
“If nothing is done, Katanga is a powder keg and anything can happen,” said Lubaya on Tuesday (9 April) following a visit to Lubumbashi.
“Persistent insecurity could lead to investors pulling out. That’s why the government must not take only cosmetic measures,” he said.
Last month, some 300 fighters penetrated the heart of Lubumbashi, Congo’s second city and the country’s principal mining hub before they were stopped by the Republican Guard, said Reuters.
Lubaya said officials had been aware the rebels’ advance on the city 24 hours before the attack, but that they had failed to react.
On Tuesday, Congo’s government suspended the local heads of the military and police for their failure to prevent the raid in which 15 rebels were killed.
However, dialogue and deeper involvement from authorities in Kinshasa was required or rebel leaders would stoke local grievances and long-standing secessionist sentiment, said Lubaya.
“State authority must be re-established. At the moment it is only partial,” Lubaya said, adding that the parliamentary inquiry’s findings would be released this week.
