DRC: Muyej alerted about the danger of the activity of the artisanal diggers looters

Lualaba governor Richard Muyej, speaking at DRC Mining closing on Friday, June 21, 2019, had already sounded the alarm on the case of illegal artisanal miners in his province in Lualaba. These loot, destroy and die in landslides they are there cause.

He was one of the panel speakers focused on how to formalize artisanal diggers to make them more responsible.

According to Richard Muyej, governor of Lualaba, if in other mining provinces, these diggers are counted by a dozen thousand, in Lualaba and precisely around Kolwezi, they are more than 170 thousand diggers.

Another peculiarity, if elsewhere they are organized as a cooperative, at home, these young people come from other provinces and are active in free electron.

« They enter in groups of 5 to 8 thousand overnight at mining sites not to dig but to take production. They attack the drivers of the machines to use the minerals that are on the sites », he lamented.

Tenke Fungurume paid the price for what he described as « mining terrorism. » The police, helpless in the face of this tragedy, lost in three months, three of its members.

Another consequence, a city of 20 thousand households was created around these sites with the objective to fly.

Faced with this worrying situation, Richard Muyej had advocated not only the formalization of artisanal miners to make them more responsible, but also the need to put an end to this growing insecurity.

Solutions tracks
First, on the security front, the police have been replaced by the soldiers who are disuassion to keep these intruders away from these mining sites.

Also, there is reason to think about the relocation of these families to a place further away from these mining sites. A relocation accompanied by structures of supervision.

Finally, it would be better to occupy them to avoid that they return to their old activity and that they become of negative forces which risk to set themselves in weight for the development of the province of Lualaba.

They are also likely to cause harm to the state partner who are these mining companies.

In his turn, Guillaume Kiza Head of the Katanga branch of SAEMAPE (service of assistance in the supervision of artisanal and small-scale mining production) lamented one thing: artisanal diggers are often sent back to non-productive sites.

He suggested that research be done before referring them to these sites.

Finally, Muyej urged human rights activists to sensitize artisanal miners to avoid repetitive tragedies instead of condemning mining companies for the security measures taken to counteract these unpleasant situations.

Nadine FULA