Eleven killed in rebel raids on Congo’s second city

Government forces were able to repel the twin attacks by dozens of armed militants and the situation is now fully under control, provincial interior minister Moise Mpanga said in a video statement.

Three Congolese soldiers, seven rebel fighters and one 10-year-old girl died in the fighting, he said.

Congo’s second-largest city is the capital of the mineral-rich province of Haut-Katanga, where mining companies such as Ivanhoe and MMG have concessions.

The attacks follow an incursion into Lubumbashi last September by pro-independence rebels, who beheaded two policemen and killed one soldier as they sought to seize strategic buildings before they were pushed back.