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3 security forces killed in Congoâ€™s mineral-rich Lubumbashi

09 August 2012 04:16 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Gunmen have killed three security forces at an airport in the Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), APA reports quoting Press TV.

The incident took place in the southeastern mineral-rich city of Lubumbashi early on Wednesday, AFP reported.

"Unidentified gunmen attacked Luano airport in Lubumbashi. The toll is one republican guard who was burned to death and two others who died of gunshot wounds," said Major Ibrahim Diene of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO).

He added that the gunmen fled into the forest.

It was the latest deadly incident in the city following two similar attacks last year, blamed on Katangan secessionists.

In February 2011, a civilian security guard was killed at the same airport while hundreds of prisoners and a local rebel leader escaped following an attack on Lubumbashi’s prison in September of the same year.

Thirty percent of global cobalt reserves and 10 percent of worldâ€™s copper mines lie in Katanga. About 500,000 tons of copper is exported from the region annually.

Congo has faced numerous problems over the past few decades, such as grinding poverty, crumbling infrastructure, and a war in the east of the country that has dragged on for over a decade and left over 5.5 million people dead.