Two burned alive at mine

2006-04-25 22:08

Lumumbashi - Two employees of a Canadian mining company died when illegal miners set fire to the firm's premises in the southeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a regional official said on Tuesday.

"Illegal diggers, who had been chased off the site of the firm (Anvil Mining), set fire to the premises, where there was a cook and a security guard," said Diemu Tchikez, deputy governor of Katanga, from Kolwezi, where the incident took place, about 250km northwest of the provincial capital, Lumumbashi.

"They were unable to get out and were burned alive," he said.

Tchikez said: "The miners had been chased from the Anvil concession the day before by company guards and said that one of their number had been thrown in a well."

He said the security company hired by Anvil had denied throwing the illegal digger down the well.

Protest march

But a witness said that security staff had indeed thrown a miner named Kayembe Mokoji into a pit full of water in the mine and he had drowned.

News of the death sparked a march on the town hall of Kolwezi where, according to witnesses, the protestors were turned away. The demonstrators then marched on the mining company's offices.

Anvil has been mining copper in Katanga for some years. It recently began operations in Kolwezi, obtaining a concession from which it is trying to expel independent miners.

- SAPA