Lualaba

The groups said they interviewed 133 people affected by evictions related to cobalt and copper mining in six locations around the city of Kolwezi in Lualaba Province during separate visits in February and September 2022.

In one case, Congolese soldiers burned down the Mukunbi settlement in the southern province of Lualaba in November 2016 to make way for cobalt and copper mining by Dubai-based Chemaf Resources.

EGC officially launched in March this year, but has yet to buy any cobalt partly because of a dispute over the Kasulo mine in Lualaba province that it planned to start buying from.

Companies in Lualaba have a month from July 2 to prepare sanitation measures and release all workers confined for more than a month.

In June dozens of miners were killed when a copper and cobalt mine in DR Congo's Lualaba province collapsed.