Fifty-eight people were presented to a provincial minister on Friday. By Monday, the miners were back on the street.
That is how stubborn the Kolwezi riots have become. The arrests were meant to close a violent week. They may have done the opposite.
Security services say those held over the Kolwezi riots were picked up in Luilu, Kapata, Kasulo, Bel-Air and Chabula. They stand accused of vandalism and disturbing public order, according to Radio Okapi. One man was presented as a suspected witch doctor found carrying amulets.
The Kolwezi riots began on Monday 19 October. Artisanal miners brought traffic to a halt from Kasulo to Kanina, Musonoie and the T17 axis. They were furious about inspections at ore processing plants and buying depots. Some plants had been shut, they said, leaving them nowhere to sell.
Bloomberg reported that miners built barricades, burned tyres and clashed with police.
The governor of Lualaba, Fifi Masuka, pushed back. She said on X that no processing entity had been closed and that only five of 19 had been inspected. Her commission, she said, was there to “clean up our mining environment”.
Miners tell a different story. Their deeper grievance is Kamilombe, a site inside a Gécamines licence. The state wants them out and into a new artisanal zone, known as ZEA 371. Many doubt it is fit to work.
They have heard promises before. A year ago, Congo’s National Human Rights Commission urged Lualaba to speed up the zones. Its provincial coordinator, Arthur Kabulo, said the sites promised to miners were still out of reach. Opening them, he warned, would ease tensions.
By Wednesday, the Kolwezi riots had reached the National Assembly. MP Alain Kantenga, who represents Mutshatsha, called the situation “dramatic”. The toll was heavy in dead and wounded, he said, and hospitals were full. No official figure had been released at the time of writing. Assembly president Aimé Boji Sangara promised to step in.
Kinshasa was moving on other fronts too. On 21 October, Mines Minister Louis Watum removed Jean-Paul Kapongo Kadiobo as head of SAEMAPE, the artisanal mining regulator. His offence, the order said, was failing to stop illicit digging on permits held by other firms. Days earlier, about 300 Chinese nationals had been detained around Kolwezi in a separate crackdown, Bloomberg reported.
Then came a deal, struck while the Kolwezi riots were still fresh. On 23 October, the government agreed to relocate more than 20,000 artisanal miners from Kamilombe to the new zone. By 26 October, Radio Okapi reported that the relocation and compensation process had officially begun. But an agreement to move the miners is not the same as giving them access to a functioning replacement site. The same day the deal was signed, the 58 suspects were handed over.
Calm had started to return by 21 October, but the lull proved temporary. On Monday 26 October, fresh protests hit several districts, according to Radio Okapi. Trade and schools were disrupted. Vandalism and looting were reported in places. Security forces stepped in. Provincial officials had not commented on this second wave of the Kolwezi riots.
Trade and schools were disrupted. Vandalism and looting were reported in places. Security forces stepped in. Provincial officials had not commented on this second wave of the Kolwezi riots.
So what is really going on? The Kolwezi riots are less about public order than about who controls copper and cobalt. Official figures put the number of people digging in Congo’s south east above 200,000. Most work inside licences held by firms such as CMOC, Glencore and Zijin. Belgium’s International Peace Information Service says the sector is also becoming more mechanised.
In one fortnight, Kinshasa has pressed the regulator, foreign operators and local diggers all at once. On paper, 33 artisanal zones are coming. On the ground, miners say the sites are not ready.
Enforcing mining rules will not, by itself, resolve the dispute. Artisanal mining sites operating inside industrial concessions pose questions about access, oversight and control. But relocation also requires somewhere for more than 20,000 people to work on a Tuesday morning.
The Kolwezi protests will not end with a court list. A zone on a map is not a mine face. Until the diggers of Kamilombe can dig, sell and eat somewhere new, arrests alone are unlikely to deliver lasting calm.
