By: OrePulse

The Congolese human rights organization IPDHOR said clashes between artisanal miners and security forces in Kolwezi, in the Democratic Republic of Congo's southeastern Lualaba province, left several people dead and injured more than 20 others between October 19 and October 26, according to a statement the group issued on Monday.

IPDHOR — the Initiative pour la protection des droits de l'homme et la réinsertion sociale, a Congolese human rights group — said more than 60 people were arrested in connection with the unrest. The group did not provide an exact death toll, describing the number of dead only as "several."

According to IPDHOR, four of the people injured remained hospitalized at the Kasulo health center at the time of its statement. The group said those patients had not received adequate assistance from provincial authorities. No response from provincial or national government officials was included in IPDHOR's statement, and none was identified in the information available for this report.

IPDHOR said that on Monday, workers of the mining company Chemaf were attacked by people the group described as artisanal miners. The group's statement did not identify any specific individual as responsible for the attack.

The organization said residents fled or dispersed in several Kolwezi neighborhoods during the unrest, including Mutoshi, Kasulo, Cinq, Diur and Lafatain, and that parents went to schools to collect their children.

IPDHOR called on the provincial government to communicate clearly and promptly about the situation and to take measures to protect residents and treat the wounded. The group also urged authorities to release an official count of deaths, injuries and arrests, and to disclose publicly where detained people are being held.

The group further called for an independent, national-level mission to investigate the violence and determine responsibility, and asked that Lualaba's provincial ministers of the Interior and Security and of Mines be suspended pending a review of how they handled the crisis.

IPDHOR also urged the state-linked Entreprise générale du cobalt (EGC) to facilitate inclusive dialogue among artisanal miners, mining cooperatives, mining companies, ore-processing entities and government authorities, to address the underlying dispute over artisanal mining activity in the area.

No statement from Chemaf, EGC or Lualaba provincial authorities responding to IPDHOR's claims was included in the information reviewed for this report. The casualty and arrest figures, and the allegations described above, remain IPDHOR's own claims.

IPDHOR's account covers an eight-day span, from October 19 through October 26, during which the group said the situation in Kolwezi deteriorated before culminating in the reported attack on Chemaf workers on the final day. The group did not provide a detailed, day-by-day breakdown of events, nor a breakdown of how many of the reported deaths, injuries or arrests occurred on each date. It also did not specify how many of those arrested, injured or killed were artisanal miners, security personnel, Chemaf workers or local residents. IPDHOR framed its statement primarily as a call for transparency and independent verification, rather than as a final accounting of the unrest, and said its own tally should be checked against an official count once one is produced.