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.