11 dead as rebels attack military sites in DRCongo city
- Residents reported the sounds of gunfire in several districts following the assaults.
LUBUMBASHI: Eleven people were killed after separatist insurgents attacked two military camps in the Democratic Republic of Congo's main mining centre of Lubumbashi Sunday, the city's mayor said.
Four members of the security forces and one civilian died along with six of the insurgents, Lubumbashi Mayor Ghislain Robert Lubaba Buluma told AFP.
Jeff Mbiya Kadima, a member of a civil society platform that works with the government, told AFP the insurgents had targeted the camps of Kimbembe and Kibati on Sunday morning.
Fortune Mbaya, a civil society leader, said the attackers had identified themselves as members of the separatist Bakata-Katanga militia.
Residents reported the sounds of gunfire in several districts following the assaults.
Lubumbashi is the capital of the mining-rich Katanga region and the country's second-largest city.
Former president Joseph Kabila, who comes from the region, returned there in December after a tussle for power between his supporters and his successor Felix Tshisekedi.
Incursions by the Bataka-Katanga, fighting for the region to secede from DR Congo, occur frequently in Lubumbashi. Two policemen and a soldier were killed in the most recent attack on September 26.
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